Douglas Lima aims to become 'double champ' by beating Gegard Mousasi at Bellator 243 for the vacant middleweight title

Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima will be looking to achieve the much coveted 'champ champ' status in the promotion when he goes up against MMA veteran Gegard Mousasi for the vacant Bellator middleweight title in the co-headliner of Bellator 243 on 9th May at SAP Center in San Jose, California. The main event features a huge light heavyweight clash as champion Ryan Bader defends his title against Vadim Nemkov.

On Monday, former champion Rafael Lovato Jr. announced his decision to relinquish his title owing to a serious medical condition and soon after, the promotion announced that Lima and Mousasi will face each other for the now vacant title.

Bellator President Scott Coker announced the fight via Twitter.

Since we can’t have a cross-promotional superfight I’ll give you another.🚨 On May 9, @Mousasi_MMA vs. @PhenomLima for the vacant @BellatorMMA middleweight world championship. pic.twitter.com/8TVpcWP9sa

— Scott Coker (@ScottCoker) February 11, 2020

Lima recently signed a new multi fight deal with Bellator and this will be the first fight on his new contract. In his last fight, Lima beat Rory MacDonald via unanimous decision to win the Bellator Welterweight World Grand Prix back in October last year. He is currently on a three-fight winning streak.

Lima's counterpart and former middleweight champion Mousasi recently beat Lyoto Machida via split decision at Bellator 228 and he will be looking to recapture his lost gold when he locks horns with Lima.