UFC St. Louis has its main event, and “The Black Beast” Derrick Lewis will be topping the card.
Lewis (27-12, 1NC), a former UFC heavyweight title challenger, will take on Brazil’s Rodrigo Nascimento (11-1, 1NC) in the main event of the St. Louis card on May 11, 2024.
UFC officials announced the booking on Saturday.
Derrick Lewis will be looking for revenge in the fight, after falling to Nascimento’s countryman, Jailton Almeida, last time out. Overall, the 39-year old is 1-4 in his last five fights, leaving him mired in the worst slump of his professional career.
Lewis has twice fought for UFC gold: against Daniel Cormier in 2018, where he was submitted at UFC 230, and for an interim title against Ciryl Gane in 2021. Gane finished the heavy-handed heavyweight via TKO.
Despite those stumbles, Lewis remains the UFC’s KO king, with 14 in total, and holds wins over Curtis Blaydes, Mark Hunt, Alexander Volkov, and Francis Ngannou (though the latter came in a fight widely maligned as one of the worst in heavyweight history).
Rodrigo Nascimento has won his last three bouts, going the distance in all three. That streak features wins over Tanner Boser, Ilir Latifi, and most recently Don’Tale Mayes.
UFC St. Louis takes place on May 11 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, MO. The following match-ups have been reported for the Fight Night card:
- Derrick Lewis vs. Rodrigo Nascimento
- Charles Johnson vs. Jake Hadley
- Terrance McKinney vs. Esteban Ribovics
- Carlos Ulberg vs. Alonzo Menifield
- Jared Gooden vs. Kevin Jousset
- Tecia Torres vs. Tabatha Ricci
- Chase Hooper vs. Viacheslav Borshchev
- Trey Waters vs. Billy Goff
- Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Robelis Despaigne
- Alex Caceres vs. Sean Woodson
