Bellator NYC results: Douglas Lima cruises past Lorenz Larkin to keep welterweight belt

Bellator welterweight champ Douglas Lima was more economical in his offense against newcomer Lorenz Larkin. But he made his shots count, and he blocked most of those that came his way.

Over five rounds, Lima (29-6 MMA, 11-2 BMMA) shut down Larkin (18-6 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) with patient technique and denied the UFC defector the pleasure of an upset in his promotional debut.

The welterweight title bout opened up the main card of today’s Bellator NYC event at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It aired on pay-per-view following the Bellator 180 card on Spike with prelims on MMAjunkie.

The final scores were 50-45 and 48-47 twice for Lima, who made his first title defense after taking the title from Andrey Koreshkov this past November. Larkin, granted an immediate title shot after signing with Bellator, saw a two-fight streak snapped.

The fight’s latter two scores mirrored the close fight seen by the stats. According to Compustrike, Larkin had a brief edge in effective offense, landing 32 percent of his strikes compared to Lima’s 32.

What those numbers failed to reflect, however, was the difference in effectiveness. When Lima landed a shot, Larkin felt it, no more so than in the second round, when he was dropped by a counter left hook as he attempted to pound out a finish.

Larkin had landed a big overhand right and closed in with a swarm of punches, only to find himself fighting to stay conscious as Lima stood overhead. Rather than look for a ground and pound finish, the champ elected to let him back to his feet and slug it out. But given the comfortable lead he held in striking, it perhaps wasn’t such a surprise.

Over the rest of the fight, Lima thwacked Larkin’s legs with kicks. He followed with straight right that frequently found its mark. Larkin managed to avoid getting rattled by Lima’s offensive conclusions, but nevertheless found himself hitting a lot of glove as his strikes were intercepted. When he got too close, Lima tripped him to the mat and reset.

It was a dominant performance from Lima, who invited No. 1 contender Rory MacDonald to “come get it.”

MacDonald, for his part, was unimpressed by what he saw

“I was really underwhelmed,” he told Bellator broadcasters. – If these guys think they’re keeping the belt fighting like that, they’re just going to be another body in the grave.”

Up-to-the-minute Bellator NYC results include:

• Douglas Lima def. Lorenz Larkin via unanimous decision (50-45, 48-47, 48-47) – to retain welterweight title
• Ryan Bader def. Phil Davis via split decision (49-46, 47-48, 49-46) – to win light heavyweight title
• James Gallagher def. Chinzo Machida via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:22
• Heather Hardy def. Alice Yauger via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 4:47
• Ryan Couture def. Haim Gozali via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
• Bradley Desir def. Nate Grebb via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 2:54
• Anthony Giacchina def. Jerome Mickle via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 3:40
• Matt Rizzo def. Sergio da Silva via submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 3, 3:48
• Hugh McKenna def. John Salgado via submission (kimura) – Round 1, 4:06

For complete coverage of Bellator NYC and Bellator 180, check out the MMA Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s Matt Erickson and Mike Bohn contributed to this report on site in New York.)