This past weekend at UFC St. Louis, we saw a heavyweight matchup in the main event. The promotion’s knockout king Derrick Lewis (28-12) was taking on Brazil’s Rodrigo Nascimento (11-2, 1 NC). Both men were looking for a massive win that would get them moving back towards the top ten.
When the fight started on Saturday night, Lewis was throwing bombs before he engaged Nascimento in the clinch. There were several times where Lewis would try to take Nascimento down which was a little puzzling to see. Ultimately, Nascimento ended up getting the top position for a lot of the first two rounds.
After round two, Lewis’ corner begged him to stop grappling with Nascimento. They pointed to the fact that he’s a knockout artist and asked him to do what he does best. Lewis listened and the fight didn’t last long after that. Just 30 seconds in to the third round, Lewis landed a bomb that had Nascimento falling forward. That Black Beast followed up with a few big shots and the fight was called giving Lewis his fifteenth UFC knockout.
What’s next after UFC St. Louis?
With this win, Lewis went from 12th up to 10th in the UFC rankings. So, what should be next for him? I think his next fight is very clear and it would be a matchup that the promotion has tried to put together in the past. The fight to make is a matchup between Lewis and 12th ranked Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
These two monsters would both just throw until one of them would go down. There wouldn’t be grappling and the fight would last long. Someone would be getting knocked out. If you ask me, I think the UFC will make this fight and it will headline a show either in the late summer or early fall months. Sometime’s match making is very easy and this is one of those times where it’s not hard to think about what’s next.