Derrick Lewis Knocks Out Rodrigo Nascimento at UFC Fight Night

What a finish! Monster Energy congratulates MMA athlete Derrick Lewis on defeating Rodrigo Nascimento at the UFC Fight Night in St. Louis. In the event’s headline fight contested in the UFC’s heavyweight division, the 39-year-old mixed martial artist from Houston, Texas, delivered a thunderous knockout finish less than one minute into Round 3 to extend his record as the all-time knockout leader in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs Nascimento, also known as UFC on ESPN 56, was contested in front of a live crowd of 15,960 spectators at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri. With six fights on the Main Card and seven fights on the Preliminary Card, the event was broadcast live to fans on the ESPN+ platform.

Monster Energy’s Lewis (28-12) came to St. Louis looking for redemption after suffering a loss to Jailton Almeida in the headline fight at UFC Fight Night in Sao Paulo in November 2023. Nicknamed ‘The Black Beast,’ Lewis is an eleven-year UFC veteran and holds the record for most knockout wins in UFC history. Saturday’s fight against a young opponent marked his twelfth UFC headline bout.

Lewis’ opponent was Rodrigo Nascimento (11-2) from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Stepping into his first UFC headline fight, the grappling expert was riding a three-fight win streak after most recently defeating Don’Tale Mayes at UFC Fight Night: Almeida vs. Lewis in November 2023.

The pressure was high from the start when the two heavyweights collided inside the Octagon. Lewis attacked the Brazilian with fast kicks and punch combos, as Nascimento fired back with kicks and takedown attempts. After absorbing punishing elbows and knees to the body, Nascimento landed a takedown, and the two fighters ended the round grappling on the ground.

The second round opened with a clean right hook courtesy of Lewis before pushing Nascimento into the corner with follow-up punches. The two exchanged jabs and kicks, but it was Lewis doing more damage by finding openings for elbows and heavy punch combinations. In the final moments of Round 2, Lewis found himself taken down by the Brazilian, again finishing the round defending against Nascimento on his back. Ultimately, Lewis was not going to let that happen again...

Stepping into Round 3, Lewis came out swinging. Looking to shut his opponent down once and for all with powerful strikes, the ‘Black Beast’ had the Brazilian on the defense. Until a supercharged one-two combo landed and rocked Nascimento to his knees. From there, it was all over quickly as Lewis rained hammer punches on his stunned opponent from above until referee Jason Herzog called a stop to the contest at 0:49 minutes of Round 3.

Pronounced the winner by knockout, Lewis engaged the crowd in a victory parade in classic style. The brutal finish extends Lewis’ record for most knockouts in UFC history to 15 KO’s.

Stay tuned for more now that Lewis is back in the victory column!

Derrick Lewis counts amongst Monster Energy’s elite UFC athletes along with Kamaru Usman, Jon Jones, Chris Weidman, Rose Namajunas, Marlon Vera, Michael Chandler, Justin Gaethje, Yair Rodriguez, Jessica-Rose Clark, Valentina Shevchenko, Brandon Moreno, Daniel Rodriguez, Punahele Soriano, Gilbert Burns, Giga Chikadze, Islam Makhachev, Johnny Walker, Beneil Dariush, Gaston Bolanos, Brendan Allen, Jalin Turner, Sean Strickland, Zhang Weili, Raul Rosas Jr., Dan Ige, Diego Lopes, Alex Pereira, Daniel Zellhuber, Belal Muhammad and Cameron Saaiman.