SUNRISE, Fla. – Dhiego Lima knew he was probably up on the scorecards and headed for a decision win late in the third round of his fight with Court McGee at UFC on ESPN+ 8. So with time ticking down, he decided to take a risk in order to stand and bang – which soon left him lying on the canvas.
Lima would survive and go on to win via split-decision, but why did he insist on taking such a big chance late in the fight?
“Because, man, I wanted a ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus,” Lima told reporters after the bout. “It was a good fight already, so he shot for a takedown and I saw I defended it. I put in my head, I’m going for broke, see if we can get that ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus. You swing for 10 seconds straight, (UFC President) Dana (White) is going to be like, ‘Oh wow, these guys are swinging.’ You might get it. We’ll see if it works or not. I got knocked down … I’m a fighter, man. I’m there to fight. I don’t care if I get knocked down. But I knew it was 10 seconds and he wasn’t going to knock me clean out.”
Still, Lima admitted, he was surprised to hear one of the judges score the fight for McGee, especially after hearing that the first judge had given it to him via a clean sweep. And since getting this win also meant securing his first UFC winning streak, there was a lot riding on that final scorecard.
“It’s like, really?” Lima said. “(You hear) 30-27, all right I got this. 29-28 the other guy, uh, what? So it definitely scares you a little bit. He knocked me down at the end of third, but I dominated all rounds and I almost knocked him down in the second. I saw him stumble a little bit, and they had to see that as well.”
The win takes some pressure off, Lima said, since now he’s won two in a row after losing two straight. His next goal is to sit down with the UFC President and negotiate a new contract, he said, since the deal he got while coming off “The Ultimate Fighter” reality TV show doesn’t include many notable increases in pay.
“That’s something we’re going to sit down with my manager, sit down with Dana White, and I think I earned it,” said Lima. “I showed a lot, and hopefully we can get it.”
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