After a week off following UFC 283, the UFC is back at the Apex for a late-night card as heavyweights clash in the main event.
In Saturday night’s main event, the owner of the most knockout in the heavyweight division, Derrick Lewis, faces off against Serghei Spivac. Originally, this fight was scheduled to headline UFC Vegas 65, however, Lewis was forced out of the fight just hours before due to a medical issue. Now, a few months later, they are scheduled to face off once again as Spivac looks to crack the top ten.
Lewis is entering this fight on a two fight losing streak after getting finished in back-to-back fights last year. Currently sitting in the seventh ranked contender’s spot, Lewis has fought for the heavyweight title once before, in 2018 when he faced Daniel Cormier at UFC 230. Lewis would lose that fight in the second round, getting submitted by the champion. He would then go on to lose another fight in the second round, this time by TKO against former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. Those two consecutive losses was the first time Lewis had lost back-to-back fights in his career.
Since then, he has put together a record of 5-3 and challenger for the interim title as well. After the consecutive losses, Lewis put together four straight wins starting with back-to-back decision wins over Blagoy Ivanov at UFC 244 and Ilir Latifi at UFC 247. The next two wins were both finishes by way of KO/TKO as he defeated Aleksei Oleinik at UFC Fight Night 174 followed by Curtis Blaydes at UFC Fight Night 185. That win streak earned Lewis a shot at the interim title in a fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 265. Lewis came up short once again in his chance at gold as Gane finished him in the third round by TKO to become the interim UFC heavyweight champion.
Lewis bounced back after that fight with a knockout win over Chris Daukaus at UFC Vegas 45. Unfortunately, he has since lost his last two in a row as he enters this fight including a knockout loss to Tai Tuivasa at UFC 271 and a TKO loss to Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 277. As for Lewis’ opponent this weekend, Serghei Spivac will be entering the octagon with two consecutive wins behind him. Spivac made his UFC debut in 2019 and started his UFC career off with a TKO loss to Walt Harris in less than a minute at UFC Fight Night 151. He has since gone 6-2 following his debut. He rebounded from his debut loss with a submission win over Tai Tuivasa at UFC 243. That was followed by a decision loss to Marcin Tybura, but Spivac really bounced back from that loss by winning his next three in a row.
Of those wins, two were decision wins over Carlos Felipe at UFC Fight Night 172 and Aleksei Oleinik at UFC Vegas 29. The third win was a second round TKO win over Jared Vanderaa at UFC Fight Night 185. Spivac’s win streak was snapped when he was finished by TKO in the first round of his fight against Tom Aspinall at UFC Vegas 36. After that loss, he has since gone on to win his last two fights by TKO over Greg Hardy at UFC 272 and Augusto Sakai in his most recent outing at UFC Vegas 59.
UFC Vegas 68 Results – Co-Main Event
In Saturday’s co-main event, Da Un Jung faces off against Devin Clark in a light heavyweight bout. Jung made his UFC debut in 2019 and has since put together a record of 4-1-1. He finished his opponents in his first two UFC fights including a submission win over Khadis Ibragimov and a knockout win over Mike Rodriguez. In his third UFC fight, Jung faced Sam Alvey at UFC 254 and the pair fought to a split draw. After that, Jung won two more fights as he defeated William Knight by unanimous decision, followed by Kennedy Nzechukwu by knockout at UFC Vegas 42. In his most recent outing, Jung suffered his first loss in the UFC when he was knocked out in the first round by Dustin Jacoby at UFC on ABC 3.
Clark has been fighting in the UFC since 2016 and has had a very up-and-down career. He owns a record in the octagon of 7-7 and has never won more than two fights in a row since before his time in the UFC, when he was 6-0. In his last four fights, Clark has gone 1-3. After putting together back-to-back wins against Dequan Townsend and Alonzo Menifield in 2020, he closed out that year with a loss to snap that streak. That loss came against Anthony Smith as Smith submitted him in the first round of their fight at UFC on ESPN 18. Following that loss, Clark suffered another one at the hands of Ion Cutelaba by unanimous decision at UFC Vegas 37. He snapped his two fight losing streak with a TKO win over William Knight at UFC Vegas 51. Unfortunately, he suffered another loss in his most recent outing as he was finished by TKO against Azamat Murzakanov at UFC on ESPN 41.
UFC Vegas 68 Results – Main Card
Kicking things off at 10 p.m. PST on the main card will be a welterweight fight between Yusaku Kinoshita and Adam Fugitt. Kinoshita is making his UFC debut after a successful outing on the Contender Series in which he finished his opponent in the third round by TKO. Fugitt will be entering the fight coming off a TKO loss in his UFC debut against Michael Morales at UFC 277.
Following that fight will be a featherweight matchup as Doo Ho Choi returns to the octagon for the first time since 2019 as he takes on Kyle Nelson. Choi is coming into this fight on a three fight losing streak. The first of those losses was before he had put his career on halt due to mandatory military service in South Korea. That loss was against Cub Swanson at UFC 206. He returned from service in 2018, but unfortunately suffered another loss as Jeremy Stephens finished him by TKO in the main event of UFC Fight Night 124. Choi’s last fight took place at UFC Fight Night 165 in 2019 when he suffered his third straight loss to Charles Jourdain by TKO once again. Nelson is also coming into this fight on a skid as he has lost his last two straight including a knockout loss to Billy Quarantillo at UFC Fight Night 177, followed by a unanimous decision loss to Jai Herbert in his most recent outing at UFC Fight Night 208.
Finally, before the co-main event gets underway, another pair of heavyweights collide as Marcin Tybura takes on Blagoy Ivanov. Tybura is coming into this fight off of a win in his most recent outing when he defeated Alexander Romanov by majority decision at UFC 278. Ivanov also enters this fight off of a win in his last fight when he snapped a two fight losing streak with a unanimous decision win over Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC 274.
UFC Vegas 68 Results
MAIN CARD (ESPN+ – 1 a.m. EST/10 p.m. PST)
Serghei Spivac def. Derrick Lewis via Submission (Arm Triangle) at 3:05 of Round One
Devin Clark def. Da Un Jung via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Marcin Tybura def. Blagoy Ivanov via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Doo Ho Choi vs. Kyle Nelson is Ruled a Majority Draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
Adam Fugitt def. Yusaku Kinoshita via TKO (Elbows) at 4:36 of Round One
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+ – 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST)
Anshul Jubli def. Jeka Saragih via TKO (Punches) at 3:44 of Round Two
Jeongyeong Lee def. Yi Zha via Split Decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
Rinya Nakamura def. Toshiomi Kazama via Knockout (Punches) at 0:33 of Round One
Hyunsung Park def. Seungguk Choi via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 3:11 of Round Three
Junyong Park def. Denis Tiuliulin via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:05 of Round One
Tatsuro Taira def. Jesus Aguilar via Submission (Armbar) at 4:20 of Round One
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