Gegard Mousasi is ready to get back on the horse, and if that means a chance to get a title back, he’ll take it.
Former Bellator middleweight champion Mousasi (46-7-2 MMA, 4-1 BMMA) picked up a win this past fall against former UFC light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida in his first bout after losing the 185-pound strap to Rafael Lovato Jr. in June 2019.
But Lovato earlier this week said a brain condition may keep him sidelined while more is being learned about it – and it ultimately may force him to walk away from fighting. While the Bellator brass isn’t yet ready to strip Lovato of his belt and put it up for grabs with a new vacancy, fighters are starting to get starry eyed over the potential, it seems.
Welterweight champ Douglas Lima (32-7 MMA, 14-3 BMMA) already is relishing the thought of moving up to 185 to go after a second concurrent belt, and now Mousasi has gone public to say he’d happily throw his name into that same hat.
“Bellator, send me the next victim. I’m hungry.
@JohnSalter_mma or @PhenomLima, I am down for either,” Mousasi posted on Twitter.
Lima won back the welterweight title from Rory MacDonald this past fall in a dominant performance in the 170-pound tournament final.
Mousasi’s other callout, Salter (17-4 MMA, 7-1 BMMA), has back-to-back wnis after a submission loss to Lovato in 2018 on Lovato’s road to the title.
Before Mousasi lost the middleweight title to Lovato, he was on an eight-fight winning streak. He won his final five fights in the UFC before moving to Bellator as a free agend in mid-2017.
Once he jumped ship, he beat ex-champ Alexander Shlemenko, then took the title from Rafael Carvalho with a first-round TKO in May 2018. When MacDonald, who then was welterweight champ, tried to move up to win a second belt, he dominated him with a second-round TKO.
So the credentials are there for Mousasi, who has been fighting since 2003 and has more than 50 pro fights – even though he’s only 34.
Will Bellator oblige him with a title fight against Lima, either for a vacant or interim belt? That remains to be seen. But at the very least, he’s got the word out there.
Gegard Mousasi down with Douglas Lima's suggestion for a Bellator middleweight title fight