This Day in MMA History: July 17

The main event of Bellator 140, which took place on July 17, 2015, represented Andrey Koreshkov’s second shot at Bellator MMA gold. His first attempt, as an undefeated 23-year-old and winner of the Bellator Season 7 welterweight tournament two years before, had ended with a thrashing at the hands of Ben Askren.

Much had changed in two years. Most importantly for the Bellator welterweight division, Askren had departed, taking his perfect record and funky hair to One Championship. The vacant belt had been won by Douglas Lima, the Season 8 tournament winner who, like Koreshkov, had been turned away in humiliating fashion by the champ. Lima then promptly took a year and a half off to recover from a variety of knee injuries, and when he returned, Koreshkov was the most obvious candidate to be his first title challenger.

Koreshkov dominated Lima that night, using wrestling to ground the Brazilian in four of the five rounds and navigating Lima’s aggressive guard fearlessly. Koreshkov got largely the better of the striking exchanges as well; the vicious low kicking game that characterized Lima’s standup before and after that night was mostly absent. After five rounds, Koreshkov was awarded a unanimous decision, with two of the three judges giving him all five rounds. It was the crowning achievement of the young Russian’s career to date, but considering both fighters’ youth—Lima was 27 and Koreshkov not quite 25—it seemed likely they would meet again down the road.

They would do so, of course: Lima took back the belt in November 2016 with a third-round knockout, and they met for a third time in Bellator’s 2018 Welterweight Grand Prix, with Lima’s title on the line. Lima prevailed again, that time via rear-naked choke in the final round. Lima’s dominant finishes in two of three meetings give him the definitive advantage in their rivalry, but do not diminish just how masterful Koreshkov’s performance at Bellator 140 was.