Michael Page is seeking a third fight decider with Douglas Lima before pursuing his dream Bellator welterweight world title quest.

The flamboyant 34-year-old MMA star who trains at the London Shootfighters gym in Alperton, finally got the better of Brazil's former three-time world champion in a close split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) at Bellator 267 bill at SSE Arena, Wembley.

During their initial encounter at Bellator 221 in May 2019, in Rosemont, USA, Atlanta-based Lima, 33, stopped MVP in two rounds en route to claiming both the Bellator Welterweight World Grand Prix tournament and regaining the world title at the same time five months later against Canada's 'Red King' Rory MacDonald.

However, Hackney-born Page got his sweet revenge to advance to 20 wins in 21 outings.

But after telling Bellator post fight analyst 'Big John' McCarthy of his ambition to face Ukraine's currently 26-fight unbeaten world title holder Yaroslav Amosov, he is now willing to put that on hold to pursue a lucrative trilogy fight with Lima in order to prove to his fans that he can beat the Brazilian in convincing fashion.

"In all honestly I'm probably going to push to get this one back again," Page said. "Let's do five rounds. Why not? Let's go longer. Because if by the end of the third, that had happened again, I've got two more rounds to find you and finish it properly.

"I've been telling people from the beginning. I feel like no one really listens. I don't care about the title," he said. "It's a belt – who cares? How many people that are titleholders that are nowhere near as popular as I am? The belt doesn't mean anything. It does obviously, but for me it doesn't.

"It's more about me and my journey. I want to prove things to myself. I didn't get to prove that today. I won, but I didn't get to prove what I wanted to prove, which is just make his eyes roll into the back of his head and not get back up and I know I can do it, so I prefer to run it back."

On the bout itself Page added: "I wanted to finish him. He’s a tough man. I understand why he’s been a champion three times.

"Even when I hit him with those big shots, he just kept coming and then he started to adjust and make it more difficult. I was confident. I knew he was going to go for a takedown.

"Every single striker that stands in front of me, I turn them into wrestlers. Every single one of them. Now I want that bling. I’ve come over and got my redemption."