It’s not every day you see a heavyweight land a flyweight knee. It’s even more shocking when it’s Derrick Lewis landing the explosive shot.
That was the scene at UFC 291, and arguably no one was more surprised than Marcos Rogerio de Lima, whose face ate the massive knee from the hulking fighter known as “The Black Beast.” While Lewis has been known to throw the odd jumping attack from time to time, rarely do they come close to landing — and none has even been as picture perfect as watching the big man sail through the air to connect with the Brazilian’s chin.
Rogerio de Lima went down, Lewis piled on with ground strikes, and soon had the win. He also had one of four Performance of the Night bonuses awarded at UFC 291.
No Fight of the Night was handed out following Saturday’s event in Salt Lake City, Utah. Instead, it was individual performances in the spotlight. Joining Lewis on that front was Justin Gaethje, who captured the so-called “Baddest Motherf*cker” (or BMF) championship with a head kick KO of Dustin Poirier.
The end came in the second round, after a competitive first five minutes. Exactly one minute into the second round, and just under one year to the head kick KO landed by Leon Edwards on Kamaru Usman at the very same venue. Coincidentally, Usman is a teammate of Gaethje; the technique of Edwards and “The Highlight” appeared nearly identical on review.
Gaethje now holds 12 post-fight bonuses — equal to his number of fights in the UFC, though in some cases, he doubled up on bonus money in certain fights.
An ending we'll NEVER forget 🙌
Thank you for another incredible night in Utah!
[ #UFC291 | #StateofSport @StateofSport @DeltaCenter ] pic.twitter.com/EITZInMtuj
— UFC (@ufc) July 30, 2023
In addition to Lewis and Gaethje, Kevin Holland and Bobby Green were rewarded for some main card submissions on Saturday. Holland opened up the PPV portion of the event by catching Michael Chiesa in a d’arce choke. One fight later, Bobby Green choked out Tony Ferguson with just seconds left in their three-round lightweight scrap.
It was the sixth straight loss for Ferguson, who gave up position late in the round with a low-percentage roll in a fight he was losing — though he had arguably been winning the third at least to that point.
The win was Green’s first submission victory since his promotional debut against Jacob Volkmann in 2013.
All four bonus winners will pocket an extra $50,000 for their efforts.
