Junior Dos Santos Stops Derrick Lewis In Wild UFC Wichita Main Event
Heavyweight knockout strikers Junior dos Santos and Derrick Lewis threw down in the main event of tonight’s (Sat., March 9, 2019) UFC on ESPN+ 4 at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas.
Former champ ‘Cigano’ won his last two over Tai Tuivasa and Blagoy Ivanov after a failed title bid against then-champion Stipe Miocic. He was looking to stake a claim for another shot at the title. Top-ranked Lewis was last seen losing to current champion Daniel Cormier in a short-notice title bout at November’s UFC 230. “”The Black Beast” had won his previous three fights over Alexander Volkov, Francis Ngannou, and Marcin Tybura.
The winner of the UFC Wichita main event would certainly make a strong case for a title eliminator match-up.
Round One:
The fight began with dos Santos swinging wild. Lewis answered with a low kick and dos Santos thudded one back. Lewis went up top with a kick. An eye poke halted the fight. Lewis was fine and the fight continued. Lewis threw a hard kick to the body. Dos Santos answered with a spinning back kick attempt, but ‘The Black Beast’ landed a huge strike. JDS landed a massive shot that almost had Lewis out, yet he answered with one that nearly dropped “JDS.”
The action was as expected. Lewis threw another haymaker. Dos Santos threw his jab and overhand. A hard low kick came from ‘JDS,’ who just missed on two shots afterward. Dos Santos threw a hard spinning back kick to the body. It looked like Lewis was done but he appeared to tempt dos Santos in. He threw a huge right hand. Yet it seemed Lewis was truly hurt and almost finished. Somehow Lewis made it out of the first frame of an already wild fight.
Round Two:
They touched gloves to start the second round. Lewis threw a high kick as ‘Cigano’ was measured. Lewis landed another low kick. He landed some big shots when ‘JDS’ appeared to slip. Lewis went for a strange takedown attempt that didn’t work. But dos Santos landed his trademark overhand and opened up with a flurry of shots that dropped ‘The Black Beast.’ He poured it on and the fight was stopped shortly after.
Amazing stuff from the former champ. Three straight wins, with his latest over the most recent title contender.
Final Result: Junior dos Santos def. Derrick Lewis via R2 TKO (strikes, 1:58)
