Derrick
Lewis made sure his
UFC on ESPN 56 main event against Rodrigo
Nascimento didn’t last the full 25 minutes.
In a surprising change of pace, Lewis (28-12, 1 NC) came out
looking to clinch with the Brazilian at first but wasn’t able to do
much in the position. Instead, Nascimento (11-2, 1 NC) secured a
takedown and took the fight to the floor. Lewis would survive the
frame but ate a number of elbows. Lewis would have more success in
the second frame, landing some heavy uppercuts while dirty boxing. „The Black Beast“ would then be fully unleashed in Round 3 as
a huge overhand right floored Nascimento, and Lewis kept
throwing until the fight was stopped 49 seconds into the
stanza.
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With the win, Lewis has now won 19 fights inside the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division.
Buckley Tears Through Ruziboev
The co-main event saw welterweights Joaquin
Buckley and Nursulton
Ruziboev clash. Buckley (19-6) took an early advantage by taking the fight to the
ground several times and controlling „Black.“ Back on the feet,
Ruziboev (34-9-2, 2 NC) showed heavy hands that hurt „New Mansa.“
The final round saw the fight truly become one-sided as Buckley
hurt Ruziboev on the feet and followed it up with damaging
ground-and-pound that nearly forced the referee to step in.
Buckley took a well-earned unanimous decision win with scores of
30-27, 30-26, 29-27.
Ulberg TKOs Menifield in 12 Seconds
Carlos
Ulberg needed just 12 seconds to pick up a TKO win over
Alonzo
Menifield.
The fight began wildly as Menifield (15-4-1) rushed forward,
throwing a series of looping punches. Ulberg (10-1) stayed composed
as Menifield ran into the cage and unloaded his own series of
punches that floored „Atomic.“
Although Menifield was about to get back up, the fight was
waved off, and „Black Jag“ picked up the quick win.
The New Zealand fighter has now won six straight fights.
Ferreira Outclasses Rebecki
The third and final lightweight fight of the night saw the rising
Mateusz
Rebecki fall to the Brazilian veteran Diego
Ferreira.
Rebecki (19-2) tested the chin of Ferreira (19-5) early as the
Polish fighter landed with some heavy punches and scored a
knockdown in the process. Ferreira’s sharp boxing came back with a
vengeance in the second round as he caused significant damage to
Rebecki’s right eye. In the final frame, an exhausted Rebecki was
largely mauled by his 39-year-old opponent,
who picked up a TKO stoppage via punches with just seconds left to
go.
The official time of the stoppage came at 4:51 of Round 3.
Woodson Edges Past Caceres
Featherweights Alex
Caceres and Sean
Woodson had a fun striking battle for 15 minutes.
Initially, Woodson (12-1-1) was able to use his superior reach to
paw at „Bruce Leeroy“ with jabs and calf kicks. However, Caceres
(21-15, 1 NC) would find some success in the second round by going
to the body and pressuring the taller fighter. „The Sniper“ would
rally back in the final round by varying his strikes and fighting
more aggressively, although it seemed that Caceres was still in
control.
After three rounds, the judges awarded the fight to Woodson with
scores of 29-28, 29-28 and a ridiculous 30-27.
Cortes-Acosta Outgrapples Despaigne
The main card began with some heavyweight action between Waldo
Cortes-Acosta and Robelis
Despaigne.
The action was back-and-forth on the feet, although „The Bad Boy“
had a clear advantage in terms of striking acumen. However,
Cortes-Acosta (12-1) was able to take Despaigne (5-1) down several
times throughout the fight, where the Cuban fighter had little off
his back and was easily controlled. Despaigne was unable to stay
upright in a single round and is no longer undefeated as a
result.
After 15 minutes, Cortes-Acosta took a unanimous decision win with
scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26 in his favor.
UFC on ESPN 56 Prelim Results
In preliminary action, Chase
Hooper picked up a dominant,
yet slightly controversial, brabo choke submission win over
Viacheslav
Borshchev at 3:00 of Round 2; Esteban
Ribovics quickly knocked out Terrance
McKinney with
a brutal head kick in just 37 seconds; Tabatha
Ricci edged a split decision win over Tecia
Pennington with scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28; Trey Waters
went to war and won a unanimous decision win (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
over Billy Goff;
Charles
Johnson outworked Jake Hadley
over three rounds to earn scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 29-28; and
Veronica
Hardy outstruck J.J. Aldrich
to a unanimous decision earn three 29-28 scorecards in her favor.