5 of the best welterweights outside of the UFC

#2. Douglas Lima - Bellator welterweight

Douglas Lima is an intriguing case in terms of the world welterweight rankings. For a period of time, Lima was held in a similar light to Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire, in that many fans of the sport considered him equal, if not superior, to UFC fighters in his weight class.

He holds wins over some truly high-level opposition, including two other fighters who feature on this list: Rory MacDonald and Michael Page.

However, similar to 'Pitbull' this past weekend, Lima lost his belt to an undefeated prospect. He also failed in an attempt to capture Gegard Mousasi's Bellator middleweight belt, leaving him on a two-fight losing streak.

He is currently set to rematch Michael 'Venom' Page in October, where a win will likely set him up for a chance to win his belt back and prove that he is still one of the world's top welterweight fighters.

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#1. Yaroslav Amosov - Bellator welterweight

Bellator's current welterweight champion, Yaroslav Amasov, holds a perfect 26-0 record. While it could be argued that his first victories were over low-level competition on the Ukrainian regional circuit, you could say something similar about Khabib Nurmagomedov, who went on to become one of MMA's all-time greats.

Early fights aside, Amosov has been competing in Bellator's welterweight division since 2018, where he has amassed seven consecutive victories. Among them are impressive wins over the likes of Ed Ruth, Erick Silva and Logan Storley. Amosov's most recent victory was over the number two pick on this list, Douglas Lima, who he dominated over five rounds to pick up the Bellator welterweight strap.

Former UFC and Bellator fighter Josh Thomson recently picked Amosov as his top pick to defeat current UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.