Derrick Lewis kept his UFC on ESPN 56 main event fight against Rodrigo Nascimento from ending for 25 minutes.
In a surprising change of pace, Ruiz (28-12, 1 NC State) initially came out looking to settle the fight with the Brazilian, but couldn’t do much in that position. Instead, Nascimento (11-2, 1 NC State) secured a takedown and took the match to the floor. Lewis survived the frame, but took a number of elbows. Lewis was more successful in the second frame, landing some heavy uppercuts while dirty boxing. Then, in the third round, “The Black Beast” was fully unleashed with a huge overhand right floor from Nascimento, and Ruiz continued to throw until the fight was stopped 49 seconds into the fight.
With this victory, Lewis has won 19 fights within the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division.
Buckley tears up over Luzhiboev
The co-main event featured a clash between welterweights Joaquin Buckley and Nursulton Rujiboev.
Buckley (19-6) gained an early advantage by taking the fight to the ground several times and controlling “Black.” Luzhboev (34-9-2, No. 2 in North Carolina) stood up and showed heavy hands that hurt “New Mansa.” In the final round, the fight became very one-sided, with Buckley damaging Ruzhiboev’s leg and landing enough ground and pound that the referee had to intervene.
Buckley won by unanimous decision with scores of 30-27, 30-26, and 29-27.
Ullberg TKOs Menifield in 12 seconds
It took just 12 seconds for Carlos Wolberg to score a TKO victory over Alonzo Menifield.
The fight started violently as Menifield (15-4-1) jumped forward and landed a series of looping punches. Ullberg (10-1) kept his cool as Menifield ran into the cage and unloaded a series of punches of his own, beating “Atomic” down. Menifield tried to stand up, but the fight was waved off and “Black Jug” took the early victory.
This is the sixth consecutive victory for the New Zealand fighter.
Ferreira beats Rebecchi
In the final lightweight bout of the night, rising star Mateusz Rebecchi lost to Brazilian veteran Diego Ferreira.
Rebecchi (19-2) tested Ferreira (19-5) on the chin, with the Polish fighter landing some hard punches and knocking him down in the process. Ferreira’s sharp boxing got his revenge in the second round, causing significant damage to Rebecchi’s right eye. In the final frame, an exhausted Rebecchi was mostly hurt by his 39-year-old opponent, earning a TKO stoppage with punches with seconds remaining.
The official stoppage time was 4:51 of the third round.
Woodson defeats Caceres
Featherweights Alex Caceres and Sean Woodson engaged in an entertaining striking battle for 15 minutes.
Initially, Woodson (12-1-1) was able to use his superior reach to attack “Bruce Leeroy” with jabs and calf kicks. However, Caceres (21-15, 1 NC) will likely find some success by going for the body in the second round and putting pressure on the taller fighter. “The Sniper” rallied in the final round by changing up his attacks and fighting more aggressively, but Caceres still appeared to be in control.
After three rounds, the judges awarded the fight to Woodson with scores of 29-28, 29-28, and a whopping 30-27.
Cortes Acosta outperforms Despaigne
The main card began with heavyweight action between Waldo Cortez-Acosta and Robelis Despaignes.
The action was a lot of back-and-forth, but “The Bad Boy” clearly had the advantage in terms of insight. However, Cortez Acosta (12-1) was able to knock Despaigne (5-1) down several times throughout the match, and the Cuban fighter lost much of his strength and was easily controlled. Despaigne was unable to stay upright in the first round and was no longer undefeated as a result.
After 15 minutes, Cortez-Acosta won a unanimous decision with scores of 30-27, 30-27, and 30-26.
UFC on ESPN 56 preliminary results
In preliminary action, Chase Hooper scored a dominant but somewhat controversial Bravo choke submission victory over Viacheslav Borshchev at 3:00 of the second round. Esteban Livovic knocked out Terrence McKinney with a brutal head kick in just 37 seconds. Tabatha Ricci defeated Tecia Pennington by split decision with scores of 28-29, 29-28, and 29-28. Trey Waters faced Billy Goff and won by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28). Charles Johnson outscored Jake Hadley in three rounds with scores of 29-28, 29-28, 29-28. Veronica Hardy defeated J.J. Aldrich by unanimous decision, with three scorecards going in her favor, 29-28.
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