Underdog Derrick Lewis gave Curtis Blaydes a superior fight race in the second round on Saturday night for an amazing upset at the main event at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas.
Lewis connected on just seven total shots – compared to 28 for Blaydes – but made the final count, winning KO / TKO at 1:26 of the second round to improve to 25-7.
Blaydes was unconscious when he hit the mattress.
“That was the only punch I expected for the whole fight,” Lewis said. “I knew he would come in. … That’s all I was waiting for. I wasn’t worried about throwing one or two, one shot, or something. ”
Blaydes (14-3, 1 NC) struggled with a UFC record of 59 eliminations, but failed to score against Lewis.
Lewis, on the other hand, got into the fight with the most eliminators in UFC history in the heavyweight division and added another for the fourth straight victory. In doing so, Lewis broke the winning streak of Blaydes’ four fights.
In the previous action, Yana Kunitskaya was a unanimous winner over Ketlen Vieira in their fight for women with gallant weight. Kunitskaya scored 29-28 victories after scoring 215 total strikes.
Darrick Minner was a unanimous winner over Charles Rosa in their featherweight fight.
Chris Daukaus won by KO / TKO over Aleksei Oleinik, winning with his fists to 1:55 in the first round in their heavyweight bout.
Phillip Hawes won a majority decision over Nassourdine Imavov, 29-28, 29-28, 28-28 in their fight with the middleweight.
Tom Aspinall forced Andrei Arlovski to submit with an empty choke from behind at 1:09 of the second round in their heavyweight fight.