Derrick Lewis floors Rodrigo Nascimento with thunderous right hand in UFC St Louis main event

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, May 11, 2024 for UFC St Louis, going down live from the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

Headlining the event is a heavyweight bout between the UFC’s all-time knockout leader, no. 12 ranked Derrick Lewis (28-12) and the surging no. 15 ranked Rodrigo Nascimento (11-2).

Lewis came into his first fight of 2024 tonight, going 1-2 last year with a defeat to no. 9 ranked Sergey Spivak, a win over no. 14 ranked Marcos Rogerio De Lima (TKO), and a defeat to Jailton Almeida (UD).

Nascimento on the other hand, following a 1-1 (1 NC) run across three fights to begin his UFC career, had since won three-straight over Tanner Boser (SD), Ilir Latifi (SD), and Don’Tale Mayes (UD) coming into tonight’s main event.

Continue reading to see how this heavyweight encounter went down:

Official Result: Derrick Lewis def. Rodrigo Nascimento via TKO (punches) at :49 of round three

The two tied up along the fence in the early goings of the bout before eventually separating about two minutes in. Lewis let go on a couple heavy punches that forced Nascimento to tie back up with him, the Brazilian soon after securing a body lock trip. He landed a lot of accurate ground and pound from top position, going to both the body and the head with his punches.

Lewis gave up his back in order to stand up, where he ended up reversing Nascimento in the final minute of the opening round and ended it in top position.

Lewis landed a lot of heavy punches in combination in the second, Nascimento somehow managing to stay upright. Lewis tied up with him again and went for an inside trip, failing on his attempt as Nascimento proceeded to take his back and remain in dominant position for the rest of the second.

Lewis landed a thunderous right hand early in the third that badly hurt Nascimento, who instinctively tried to wrap up a single leg as Lewis was unloading on him. The referee was eventually forced to stop the action, and ‘The Black Beast’ added to his all-time UFC knockout record (15) tonight in UFC St Louis’ main event.

DERRICK LEWIS ADDS ANOTHER KNOCKOUT TO HIS RESUME OVER RODRIGO NASCIMENTO #UFCStLouis pic.twitter.com/672s942nNM

— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) May 12, 2024

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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