Rory MacDonald sends Douglas Lima scary GIF after fight booking, champ responds

It didn’t take long for Rory MacDonald and Douglas Lima to get into it on social media after their Bellator welterweight championship fight was confirmed.

Bellator officials today announced MacDonald (19-4 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) will challenge Lima (29-6 MMA, 11-2 BMMA) for the 170-pound title on Jan. 20 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. It’s a fight everyone knew was coming after “The Red King” made a successful Bellator debut against Paul Daley in May.

MacDonald sent a message to Lima following the Brazilian’s successful title defense vs. Lorenz Larkin at Bellator NYC in June, saying that he was “really underwhelmed” by the performance and that, “If these guys think they’re keeping the belt fighting like that, they’re just going to be another body in the grave.”

The dark imagery from the Canadian continued after the fight announcement became public, with MacDonald sending the champ a GIF from the movie “Sin City” (via Twitter):

Lima, No. 7 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings, clearly has no intention of being intimidated by No. 4-ranked MacDonald. “The Phenom” immediately replied to the former UFC welterweight title challenger, letting him know that he’s not going to give up his belt without a fight (via Twitter):

For more on Bellator’s upcoming event schedule, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.