Prime Picks: Bellator Champions Series San Diego

Bellator MMA sideswipes the Ultimate Fighting Championship by staging a special Saturday showcase that kicks off in the midst of the UFC’s main card. The show took a few hits but is rumbling into the station with a trim lineup of 10 bouts, and there is money to be made on a few of them. Skipping past the lopsided main event—there may be a smidge of value on the underdog but not enough to warrant a three-paragraph pitch—the Bellator Champions Series San Diego edition of Prime Picks features a pair of overlooked aging vets who still have plenty to prove in matchups where they can excel.

Lorenz Larkin (-120)

Dating back to 2018, the lone loss on the ledger of UFC ex-pat Larkin came in a contentious split decision where some felt he won the rematch against Andrey Koreshkov. Fresh off his 38th birthday, “The Monsoon” has as much pop on his shots as ever, if not more. His last three wins have all come via first-round stoppage, a feat he had not accomplished since 2010. With the opposition generally higher in Bellator or the Professional Fighters League than in MEZ Sports or Respect in the Cage, Larkin’s sprawl-and-brawl style has still suited his needs and kept him relevant even after departing the UFC on a winning streak in 2016. Larkin may be facing a taller man about 10 years his junior, but if Levon Chokheli decides to keep this exclusively on the feet or up close and personal against the fence, the Californian is more than a force to be reckoned with.

Due to sketchy recordkeeping in Georgia, Chokheli’s record might be accurate on Fight Finder, or it could be off because no one bothered to correct it. What is known is that the Georgian’s path to a major organization was easy, facing just one adversary with a winning record in his first nine outings. While he surpassed Issa Isakov in 2020 by figuratively driving knees through his skull—it was no doctor stoppage—that marked his lone solid win against an opponent of merit. Chokheli stumbled when battling someone who offered to fight back, but he appears to have put things together in his last three Bellator outings. His front kick out against Sabah Homasi—a strike straight out of the Anderson Silva or Lyoto Machida playbook—was a thing of beauty but not likely the kind of weapon he can comfortably unleash against the pressure-first Larkin. Chokheli is hittable and can be lured into a brawl, to his detriment. When the dust settles, Larkin may become the first fighter to put the durable Georgian away with strikes.

Douglas Lima (+145)

Multiple-time Bellator champ Lima looked listless after four deflating decision losses across two weight classes. Seemingly unable to shake his funk or implement his offense, the man from Goiania, Brazil, flirted with retirement. Instead, Lima inked a new contract and showed he had a place at 185 pounds by outhustling a live Costello van Steenis about 16 months ago. In that time off—a layoff mostly due to contract issues—opponent Aaron Jeffery reached a middleweight title eliminator, only to be rebuffed by Fabian Edwards. Given his public frustrations with his organization’s parent company, there may be a few questions regarding Lima’s headspace going into this pairing. If he comes out like the days of old, a focused “Phenom” is a dangerous one who can cause serious issues for the Canadian.

Coaches hate him. See how Lima makes some fights look easy with one simple trick. That trick? A never-ending stream of leg kicks. Even in the fights he lost, Lima did decent work chopping trees down. The taller, lankier Jeffrey likes to toss them out, but he will be in for a rude awakening if he decides to go kick-for-kick with the Brazilian. Lima’s offense is far more varied than a calf kick from his rear leg, and he can set those strikes up to either start or end combinations. There remains little question about Lima’s durability even as he grows older, taking heavy shots against the best that Bellator has to offer in two weight divisions. “The Immortal” Matt Brown remains the lone combatant to check his chin, and that highlight is practically old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes. If Jeffery gets careless, he will get smoked by the underdog.