Bellator 283: Jason Jackson grinds out points win over Douglas Lima; Tofiq Musayev claims 27-second knockout
- Published
Jason Jackson wrestled his way to victory over Douglas Lima
The story below contains details of what happened at Bellator 283. You can watch the event here and a highlights show will air at 23.35 BST on BBC Three on Saturday, 23 June.
Jason Jackson edged closer to a welterweight title shot while lightweight Tofiq Musayev pulled off a stunning 27-second knockout at Bellator 283 on Friday.
Jackson, 31, wrestled and smothered his way to a unanimous decision over Brazilian Douglas Lima.
The American was booed by the crowd for his tactics, but believes he now deserves a title shot, saying: "If they come to me with a fight and it's not the title, it better have a lot of money."
Lima slipped to his fourth defeat in a row, his 11th loss overall. The 34-year-old is a two-time welterweight champion but is facing an uncertain future after a career spanning 16 years.
As for Jackson, he picked up his 16th career win but may be made wait for a crack at the title.
Interim belt holder Logan Storley is waiting for champion Yaroslav Amosov to return from military duty in Ukraine so that they can meet.
It means Jackson could be paired against Briton Michael 'Venom' Page, who lost to Storley in London in May.
Explaining his tactics against Lima, Jackson said: "I didn't want to risk it because, at the level that we're fighting at, anything could happen. I wanted to take him to deep waters and drown him, so I came prepared for five rounds.
"Right now, I want one thing, and that's the title. I want to be a champion. I want to be the champ. I'm going to be the champ."
Tofiq Musayev stole the show at Bellator 283
The co-main event was something of a reshuffle, with Musayev stepping in at late notice to face Sidney Outlaw after lightweight champion Patricky 'Pitbull' Freire pulled out of his first title defence with an injury.
Azerbaijan's Musayev produced a thrilling stoppage in next to no time.
With both men swinging looking for a big shot from the first bell, Musayev stepped backwards and fired off two hooks. The second shot, a left hook, clipped Outlaw's temple, causing him to wobble on his feet immediately.
With Outlaw looking as if he were on ice, Musayev delivered a crunching right hand to put him down, forcing the referee to step in and stop the fight.
The defeat will be a bitter blow to Outlaw who was booked to fight for the lightweight title against Pitbull and will now have to work his way back into championship contention.
For Musayev it is a huge win, his first since signing for Bellator in January and secures him a title shot.
A fight against Pitbull would be a rematch to follow their 2019 Rizin encounter in Japan, which Musayev won on points.
After Friday's impressive win over Outlaw, Pitbull posted on Twitter that his top choice was Musayev, rather than Usman Nurmagomedov, who produced his own first-round finish at Bellator 283 to defeat Chris Gonzalez.
"There's a good chance I will be able to fight in November," Pitbull said.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
"Usman was impressive tonight. But Sidney is the number one ranked [fighter] and I have a history with Tofiq I want to settle being injury free as last time I had a broken hand. All challengers are welcome."
In a night with eight finishes across the preliminaries and main card, Nurmagomedov maintained his undefeated record with a first-round submission of Gonzalez and Roman Faraldo produced another first-round walk-off knockout in his fight against Luis Iniguez.