MacDonald vs. Lima: Bellator 192 Main Card Odds and Predictions

This Saturday is heaven for MMA fans and bettors. Not only is there an excellent UFC 220 card that night from Boston – check out our preview of that — but also perhaps the best-ever Bellator card, Bellator 192 from the Forum in Los Angeles that features Canadian legend Rory MacDonald. The main card is expected to begin at 9 p.m. ET. Here’s a look at the two key bouts and their Sports Interaction odds.

Douglas Lima vs. Rory MacDonald

Records: Lima (29-6), MacDonald (19-4)

Division: Welterweight

UFC Odds: MacDonald -275, Lima +200

Prediction: MacDonald by decision

If you plan to tune into this fight, be aware that it’s the penultimate one on the card and not the finale as it’s not technically the headline bout (it was at first). The 30-year-old Lima, from Brazil, puts his welterweight title on the line against the former UFC champion MacDonald, who makes his second trip to the octagon under the Bellator umbrella. It’s pretty rare to see a champion this much of an underdog, but then again Lima was a dog in his past two fights. Lima originally won a belt in 2014 with a TKO victory over Rick Hawn but lost it in July 2015 in a unanimous decision to Andrey Koreshkov. He has since won three straight, by unanimous decision over Paul Daley, third-round knockout (punches) of Koreshkov and a unanimous decision over Lorenz Larkin. Lima has about a two-inch height advantage on MacDonald, and in Lima’s 11 wins for Bellator eight have come by stoppage. “The Phenom” has never competed in the UFC but is considered one of the top fighters in Bellator history. It’s his 13th Bellator welterweight bout, tied for the most in the history of the division.

Tyron Woodley is the current UFC welterweight champion, and 28-year-old Rory MacDonald beat him in back in 2014. However, the “Red King” ended his UFC tenure with losses to Robbie Lawler by fifth-round TKO (one of the most brutal UFC fights ever) and Stephen Thompson by unanimous decision. MacDonald’s Bellator debut was last May, a rear-naked choke submission of Daley, so MacDonald and Lima have Daley as a common opponent. MacDonald has earned 14 of his 19 career victories by stoppage. “I don’t feel he has enough to take me out,” MacDonald said recently of Lima. “I don’t see it going four or five rounds. I’m going to close the show before then.” Should MacDonald win, he hopes to make his first title defence somewhere in Canada and would certainly have leverage to do so.

Quinton Jackson vs. Chael Sonnen

Records: Jackson (37-12), Sonnen (29-15-1)

Division: Heavyweight

UFC Odds: Jackson -175, Sonnen +135

Prediction: Jackson by KO/TKO

This is the headline bout on the card, something the organization actually recently changed. Tickets and parking passes for the card all say Lima vs. MacDonald. Bellator is likely never going to approach the UFC in popularity, but the organization is trying something unique to steal some of the spotlight: a single-elimination tournament called the Heavyweight Grand Prix. This is the first of four quarter-final fights scheduled this year. The winner will take on the Frank Mir/Fedor Emelianenko victor. In the other bracket, Muhammed Lawal faces Ryan Bader in one quarter-final and Roy Nelson tangles with Matt Mitrione in the other. The championship fight is tentatively scheduled for late 2018. The cable channel Showtime had success with something like this in boxing called the Super Six World Boxing Classic. Bellator’s heavyweight championship has been vacant since May 2016, when the promotion stripped then-champ Vitaly Minakov of the belt.

Both “Rampage” Jackson and Sonnen are former big-name UFC fighters but aren’t natural heavyweights and are past their primes. The 39-year-old Jackson last fought in March 2017 and lost a unanimous decision to Lawal in a rematch bout. Sonnen, 40, has lost four of his past six, albeit the defeats to former champions Tito Ortiz, Rashad Evans, Jon Jones and Anderson Silva. Sonnen, a long-time middleweight, last fought in June 2017 and beat Wanderlei Silva by unanimous decision. Seventeen of Silva’s career victories are by decision. Twenty-three of Jacksons 37 are by stoppage. There could be a huge weight discrepancy here as Sonnen never has fought higher than light heavyweight and Jackson weighed 253 pounds for the most recent Lawal fight.