There are mixed martial arts fighters who use check leg kicks as a means to maintain a healthy space and keep their opponents honest in the cage. Then there are those who rifle them with pure destruction on their minds.
Douglas Lima falls into the latter category. The Brazilian veteran has turned leg kicks, especially that low leg kick, into something of an art form over the course of his MMA career. An ultra-violent art form, as “The Phenom” has shown time and time again that his leg kicks hit different.
- There were the low leg kicks that Lima relentlessly fired to the point that Michail Tsarev couldn’t even stand, leading to the Brazilian recording a second-round TKO at Bellator 86 in January 2013.
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- That September in Bellator 100, Lima blasted Ben Saunders with so many legs kicks that they paved the way for a head kick KO.
- There was the time that Lima kicked Lorenz Larkin’s legs so hard that the latter switched his stance and fell out of his comfort zone. Lima won the June 2017 fight by unanimous decision.
- Everyone talks about the vicious right uppercut that Lima detonated onto Michael “Venom” Page’s chin to hand MVP his first pro loss this past May, but what about the low leg kick that took the flashy fighter off his feet and served as the perfect setup for the knockout blow?
“I think it’s very, very effective and I’ve been using it my whole career,” Lima tells Sporting News about his leg kicks, especially those low leg kicks. “My last amateur fight, I knocked a guy out with that kick. That was what … 13 years ago? I got to get the video, so I can prove it.”
The 31-year-old actually began honing his kicking skills as early as three, while growing up and playing soccer in his native Brazil.
“I always used to kick hard,” he offers. “I think that’s something I’ve always had and brought into the fighting. Kicking is definitely the best weapon that I have. My favorite for sure.”
A weapon that’s he’s constantly honing, “at least four, five times a week” by his count, as he cites that “there’s always room for improvement.”
As soon as he connects with a leg kick, he could tell the extent of damage it has done based on his opponent’s body language.
“I could tell when it hurts,” he vows. “I could just look at their facial expression or the way they step on the ground. I only need a couple of seconds to see if they’re hurt or not.”
An archive of devastating leg kicks to his name is how Lima enters the main event of Bellator 232 on Saturday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., and live on DAZN, in what he calls the “most important” fight of his career.
There, he’ll challenge Rory MacDonald not only for MacDonald’s welterweight title, but with the fight declaring the Bellator Welterweight World Grand Prix winner and recipient of $1 million presented by rap mogul 50 Cent.
MacDonald has already felt the wrath of Lima’s debilitating low leg kicks entering the bout. Lima kicked MacDonald in their January 2018 bout so relentlessly and with so much ferocity that the Canadian said “I think I have a person growing inside me,” referring to what was later determined to be a massive hematoma on his left shin.
“He’s got a great kick,” MacDonald tells SN days before the rematch. “It’s fast and powerful and he doesn’t show it coming.”
That being said, MacDonald dedicated a chunk of his training camp to prepare for Lima’s kicking onslaught and feels confident that he could negate their effects.
“I’ve addressed it in my training and I’m looking to show the skills that I’ve learned from that,” MacDonald says rather stoically. “I don’t believe it’s going to have an effect on me in this fight.”
The original bout, which MacDonald won by unanimous decision to take Lima’s welterweight title, had a moment in the third round where the Brazilian dropped “The Red King” with one of his low leg kicks as he grimaced in pain looking up at “The Phenom.”
In hindsight, Lima says he foolishly abandoned striking MacDonald’s damaged leg further for a possible finish and that cost him the match.
“Every time I drop somebody with a kick, I always let them stand back up or I keep kicking the leg, but I just saw the reaction, the way he fell, so I was like, ‘Man, I got to finish with punches,’” Lima remembers. “I went for the punches and he locked me in guard, so I think that was a mistake that I did. I should have kept standing, kept kicking the legs. I probably would have got the finish.”
BELLATOR 232: Full card info for MacDonald vs. Lima
The finish might have eluded Lima then, but he feels confident he can secure it in the rematch and take home the haul of rewards accompanying it.
“I’m looking forward to a nice finish in this fight,” Lima admits. “It’s a lot of stuff that comes into this particular fight: The money, the belt, the rematch, chance for revenge. Possibly the best welterweight on the planet can be decided in this fight. I just got to stay calm, pick my shots better.”
Rest assured, that low leg kick will be part of the striking selection.
