Derrick Lewis prolonged his lead because the all-time knockout chief of the UFC’s heavyweight division with a third-round TKO of Rodrigo Nascimento in the principle occasion of UFC Battle Night time on the Enterprise Heart in St. Louis
And in true Derrick Lewis trend, after the stoppage he discarded his combat shorts, fanned his fallen opponent with them, launched his protecting cup and gloves into the gang and, for good measure, pulled down his underwear to present the followers a view of his bottom.
“I recognize St. Louis for letting me present my bare ass tonight,” mentioned Lewis, who’s from Houston, Texas. “I could not let no taxicab driver from Brazil beat me.”
The tip took slightly longer than Lewis may need anticipated. But it surely was as a result of he needed to indicate off his wrestling earlier within the combat earlier than heeding his nook’s request and ending the job on the 49-second mark of the third spherical. The knockout was Lewis’ fifteenth within the UFC and put him two forward of Frank Mir (13) with Stipe Miocic (9) UFC heavyweights. Lewis is the one energetic heavyweight within the high 10 in knockout finishes.
Nicknamed “The Black Beast,” Lewis (28-12 MMA, 19-10 UFC) entered the combat ranked No. 12 by the UFC within the heavyweight division and had gone 2-5 over his previous seven fights. The knockout of Nascimento received him again into the successful column after a November 2023 loss to Jailton Almeida.
Lewis clubbed Nascimento (11-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) with a proper hand and went for an early takedown, one thing he promised to do throughout combat week. Lewis surprised his opponent with a leg journey, however the Brazilian popped again as much as his ft. After the 2 disengaged, Lewis tried a change kick and a mix, however Nascimento crowded his area and secured a takedown of his personal.
With a wholesome mixture of punches and brief elbows, Nascimento ultimately labored his approach to a full mount, however Lewis managed to brush and ended up in half guard to shut the opening spherical.
Lewis briefly opted out of wrestling within the second spherical and returned to his hanging roots, clubbing Nascimento within the opening minute with rights and lefts. Nascimento received a maintain of Lewis to decelerate the hanging however ate an uppercut on the within. One other salvo from Lewis rattled the Brazilian, however he managed to remain upright. Nevertheless, an ill-fated leg journey try by Lewis noticed Nascimento take his again with simply over a minute left within the spherical.
Reasonably than fish for a choke, Nascimento took a breath and maneuvered his means into half guard to finish the spherical with ground-and-pound.
Lewis’ nook had seen sufficient and begged him to get the job performed along with his hanging. Lewis obliged and entered the third spherical targeted on the knockout. Simply seconds into the spherical, Lewis leveled Nascimento with a proper hand that turned the Brazilian’s legs into spaghetti. A number of extra follow-up strikes despatched Nascimento to the canvas and the stamp on the win got here shortly after with some depraved ground-and-pound.