Marcos Rogerio de Lima: A New Home at Heavyweight
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Marcos Rogerio de Lima has found a resurgence at heavyweight. The former light heavyweight contender is coming off of a win at UFC Auckland with a big first round knockout of Ben Sosoli. Now de Lima looks to build on his momentum and make his way through a growing heavyweight division.
De Lima’s start in mixed martial arts was with kickboxing. Marcos Rogerio de Lima felt politics had run amuck in kickboxing and opted for greener pastures.
“I fought kickboxing and because of politics and lack of opportunity I started competing in MMA.”
De Lima takes care of his family outside of the sport. Other than that, he’s on task, training every day. “I take care of my family. I love to train so I’m at the gym every day!”
De Lima at UFC Auckland
The fight with Sosoli was a firefight from the beginning. De Lima hoped Sosoli would bring the violence and he did. It ended in a first round knockout and de Lima found his second win at heavyweight. He recounts where he was a year ago he retired due to health concerns. While he his happy with his win, Marcos Rogerio de Lima knows he still has a ways to go to be back to where he was.
“I was very happy, exactly 1 year ago I retired from the senario due to a serious injury to my ACL, I have a lot to improve as a fighter but I can already see myself among the greats of that category.”
As for what’s next, de Lima has his sights on a specific winner. “I would like to fight with winner of Marcin Tibura and Sergey Spivack,” says de Lima. “But I have to wait and see what the UFC has for me.”
A new home at heavyweight
De Lima is very optimistic about fighting at heavyweight. His UFC debut was a heavyweight bout, which was in 2014. He had fought light heavyweight since then up until 2018. De Lima feels right at him at heavyweight and feels he has what it takes to improve even more.
“I feel much healthier in this category, I have always been a strong and fast guy and in that category I think I can get much better.”
You can always expect bangers from de Lima. Of his six wins in the UFC, five have been by finish in the first round. It is always a slobber knocker when he steps foot in the cage. De Lima says you can expect that every time he fights.
“This has always been my game. I don’t like to mess around, I like to go to the fight and I will always do it In my last fight I did it and I’m getting ready for the next one to come with more violence!”
Marcos Rogerio de Lima predicts UFC 249
The biggest fight in the MMA world right now is the headliner at UFC 249. Lightweight champ, and superstar, Khabib Nurmagomedov, will take on his toughest challenge yet in Tony Ferguson. This is the fifth time the fight has been made, the other four times the fight fell through because of injuries. We’re full steam ahead on the hype train for UFC 249. De Lima chimed in on the very anticipated main event.
“Tony has a very good game to beat Khabib but at the moment he I think he will not be able to stand the pressure of Khabib. Remember, that MMA needs champions like Khabib and [Jon] Jones!”
Stars like Khabib and Jones do propel the sport into the mainstream and both are good for MMA in general. De Lima will continue to do his part as well, providing highlight knockouts for fans to feast on.
Be sure to follow Marcos Rogerio de Lima on Instagram and Twitter to follow his new found journey through the heavyweight division.
