The
Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to ESPN airwaves this
weekend with a heavyweight main event.
UFC on ESPN 56 main event fighters Derrick
Lewis and Rodrigo
Nascimento both made weight for the 12-fight card. Both men
weighed near the 266-pound limit, so there won’t be a major weight
difference. All fighters made weight except for Jared
Gooden, who suffered a medical issue and didn’t weigh in, thus
canceling his welterweight fight against Kevin
Jousset.
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This marks the 12th UFC main event for „The Black Beast.“ However,
Lewis has struggled recently and is on a 1-4 stretch. A win over
Marcos
Rogerio de Lima is sandwiched between losses to Jailton
Almeida, Sergey
Spivak, Sergei
Pavlovich and Tai
Tuivasa. Lewis (27-12, 1 NC) will look to show he still has
something left at 39 and officially weighed 264 pounds.
Meanwhile, this is the first UFC main event for Nascimento (11-1, 1
NC). „Yogi Bear“ is riding a three-fight win streak over Tanner
Boser, Ilir Latifi
and Don’Tale
Mayes. All of those wins came via decision, although the
265-pound heavyweight may look to show off his submission game
against Lewis.
UFC on ESPN 56 will air on ESPN and ESPN+ in its entirety on
Saturday. Prelims begin at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, while the main card
starts at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
UFC on ESPN 56 Weigh-in Results:
Derrick
Lewis (264) vs. Rodrigo
Nascimento (265)
Joaquin
Buckley (170) vs. Nursulton
Ruziboev (170.25)
Alonzo
Menifield (205.5) vs. Carlos
Ulberg (205)
Diego
Ferreira (155) vs. Mateusz
Rebecki (155.25)
Alex
Caceres (145) vs. Sean
Woodson (145)
Waldo
Cortes-Acosta (262) vs. Robelis
Despaigne (262.5)
Viacheslav
Borshchev (155) vs. Chase
Hooper (155)
Terrance
McKinney (155.25) vs. Esteban
Ribovics (155)
Tecia
Pennington (115) vs. Tabatha
Ricci (115)
Billy
Goff (170.25) vs. Trey Waters
(170)
Jake
Hadley (125) vs. Charles
Johnson (125.5)
Jared
Gooden (N/A)* vs. Kevin
Jousset (170.5)
J.J.
Aldrich (125.25) vs. Veronica
Hardy (126)
* Gooden didn’t weigh in due to a medical issue, and the fight
is canceled.