San Diego -- Canadian middleweight Aaron Jeffery notched the biggest win of his career on Saturday, earning a unanimous decision over multi-time Bellator champ Douglas Lima at Bellator San Diego.

Jeffery (15-5) would later admit that it was surreal looking across the cage at a fighter he had watched compete for years, and had even rooted for.

"It's pretty cool, man. Douglas Lima, and it was my 20th pro fight. Both those things are pretty cool," Jeffery told media outlets including Cageside Press following the bout. "It was crazy looking across the cage and seeing Douglas Lima. I've been watching him for a long time, I've rooted for him in all the fights of his that I've watched. So at the beginning of round one, to look over and see him, it was pretty surreal."

Jeffery is aware that Costello Van Steenis is likely ahead of him for a title shot, once Johnny Eblen and Fabian Edwards finally settle their business. With that in mind, the 31-year old is open to options, including the PFL.

"They don't do a ton of middleweight fights, but if they want to throw me on a showcase fight or whatever, that's cool," noted Jeffery.

Jeffery would also field questions about his wrestling, and whether he was confident he'd be able to take Lima down. "Yes and no. We've seen him be taken down so many times in a few of his last fights. I knew he was going to be hard to take down but I was pretty confident that I was going to get him down."

While the Canadian was looking a little banged up after Bellator San Diego, he remained in good spirits enough to take it all in stride. "You should see the other guy," he joked.

Heading into the third round, Jeffery knew he'd have to dig deep to pull out the victory. He did exactly that. "I assumed that it was 1-1 going into round three, and I was like 'this f*cking sucks, I've got to work really hard for another five minutes, and that's what I've got to do.' And I'm happy that it went the way that it did."