Derrick Lewis headlined Saturday night’s UFC Nashville for a reason: Veteran fighters of the fabled UFC Octagon bring in the big bucks on any given night. A sold-out crowd packed Bridgestone Arena, the home venue of the NHL’s Nashville Predators to watch the first UFC show of July.
The night was capped off by a main event pitting Lewis (29-12, 1 NC MMA, 20-10 UFC) against No. 13 contender Tallison Teixeira (8-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC.) Saturday night’s main event was the first such fight for the latter competitor since joining the UFC by way of Contender Series last year.
When Derrick Lewis steps into the Octagon on a Saturday night, it’s anyone’s guess as to what’ll happen next after the cage door slams shut. Case in point: Back in October of 2018, during UFC 229, Lewis stopped Alexander Volkov with 11 seconds remaining in the third and final round.
From there, Lewis removed his trunks and then gave a hilariously X-rated response to Joe Rogan as to why he took off the shorts.
Derrick Lewis Scores Explosive KO vs. Tallison Teixeira
Although the UFC Nashville main event was scheduled for five rounds at five minutes per round to close out the night’s activities, Lewis didn’t even need a minute of the time allotted to him to prove his point.
A few short seconds after the command to fight was given by referee Jason Herzog, Tallison Teixeira stunned Derrick Lewis with a punch, appearing to cause his vision to be compromised. This was later revealed to be little more than a stalling tactic by the latter, who was undeterred, scoring with a well-placed right hook to put Teixeira down. A flurry of ground and pound shots ended the contest.
Time of the knockout: 35 seconds. This left those working the telecast over ESPN and ESPN+ impressed.
“The Beast! The Beast!”, exclaimed UFC legend Daniel Cormier, who worked UFC Nashville as an analyst. Just like in October of 2018, Lewis again removed his trunks after the victory, then proceeded to lift his leg and simulate relieving himself in front of the Texieira corner.
Derrick Lewis Discusses Celebration in Post-Fight Interview
After the victory over the weekend, Daniel Cormier talked to Derrick Lewis about his victory celebration.
“They’ve been talking (expletive deleted) all week,” Derrick Lewis said about the Tallison Teixeira camp. “Talking (bleep) all week. I can’t speak Portuguese, but I know for sure that they were talking (censored) about me. (Bleep) them.”
Backstage, Lewis discussed how his win over the previously-undefeated Teixeira could spur him to a bid for the UFC Heavyweight Championship in the future.
“He was the king of the taxicab drivers in Brazil,” Derrick Lewis said of his opponent to the assembled media on Saturday night. “No, I don’t want an easy fight like that. Of course, I would like to do one more run at the title. That would be good.”
Lewis on Stoppage of Fight vs. Tallison Teixeira
In the aftermath of the UFC Nashville main event on Saturday night, a number of people believed that Jason Herzog intervened and ended the contest between Derrick Lewis and Tallison Teixeira too quickly. UFC CEO Dana White was among those who believed that the fight should have been able to go on a little bit longer.
Lewis, however, had no issues with Herzog’s actions.
“The referee should have been stopping [the fight],” Lewis said in his post-fight press conference. “He was in and out a few times before he started grabbing the cage.”
Upon Tallison Teixiera absorbing the initial burst of punches on the ground, he began to rise to his feet using the cage fence to steady himself, an illegal tactic.
Final Thoughts
Not much more needs to be said about Derrick Lewis’ win against Tallison Teixeira over the weekend except this: Lewis’ spark has yet to go out. Given that “The Black Beast” was No. 9 in the rankings at 265 going into this weekend, he’ll be in the hunt for another shot at becoming The Baddest Man on the Planet in short order
With his second knockout win in as many fights, can anyone in the weight class stop him? Whoever his next opponent happens to be, they’d better go into the film room as soon as the fight is announced and study some tape on Lewis.
