Former Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima describes his experience filming a boxing scene for Creed 3 at his Atlanta gym as “awesome” and hopes to do more Hollywood work in the future.
Douglas Lima, the former Bellator welterweight champion, got a taste of Hollywood and now wants more in his future. Moving to middleweight to fight Costello van Steenis at Bellator 296 on Friday, Lima fondly remembers receiving a call from his coach Roan Carneiro in 2022. Hollywood star Michael B. Jordan was finishing filming Creed 3 and needed a gym to shoot some training scenes with co-star Jonathan Majors. They thought Lima’s American Top Team gym in Atlanta would be the ideal spot.
Lima’s brother, Dhiego Lima, a retired UFC veteran, told the Creed crew their only “demand” was to be included in the movie. Creed 3 premiered on March 3, pulling in $58.7 million in box office revenues in its opening week, setting a record for a sports film. They agreed to include the Lima brothers, and Douglas ended up getting punched in the face by Majors for hours on set. Douglas Lima shared his excitement on the Trocação Franca podcast, saying, “It was awesome! What a cool experience. It’s very exhausting, but I loved that experience. I hope I can do more of that in the future because it’s pretty cool.”
The entire week was spent rehearsing, but the actual filming took only two hours. Despite the small scene in the movie, Lima realized the hard work that goes into filmmaking. Lima didn’t get the chance to trade hands with Jordan, who has trained in boxing for years as “Adonis Creed” since the first movie in 2015, but he did share the ring with Majors, who played Creed’s childhood friend “Damian Anderson” in the film. When asked if Majors could fare well in boxing, Lima responded, “Depending on the fight, he can do it,” adding that Majors has been training boxing for a year and has potential, but would need to focus more on training. As for Jordan, Lima said he didn’t get the chance to train with him, but mentioned he’s “definitely technically better than [Majors].”