The Real Winners and Losers From UFC on ESPN 56

Welcome to another episode of “Does Derrick Lewis Still Have It?”

The Texas-based heavyweight is two months past his 39th birthday and seemingly light years beyond his octagonal prime, but he was at it again Saturday in the main event of an ESPN-streamed Fight Night show at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

Lewis had been shut out by Jailton Almeida in his last fight six months ago, was 1-4 across his last five outings and hadn’t strung together two wins in more than four years. He was matched this time with Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Rodrigo Nascimento, who was 4-1 with a no contest in the UFC and unbeaten since a KO loss to Chris Daukaus in October 2020.

The co-main had welterweights Joaquin Buckley and Nursulton Ruziboev in a three-rounder that was Buckley’s 11th appearance since his career-defining moment, a spinning head kick KO of Impa Kasanganay that went viral soon after it occurred one bout before the Nascimento-Daukaus fight on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi.

Buckley had won three straight and seven of 10 since the Kasanganay finish while Ruziboev arrived on a 10-fight win streak, including two in a row in the UFC since last summer.

The B/R combat staff was in position to take in the 12-bout show and deliver a real-time list of its definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.

It’s the greatest equalizer in combat sports.

Sheer, unadulterated punching power.

Derrick Lewis has it. And it seems he may never lose it.

The 39-year-old slugger had lost four of his last five fights and not looked particularly impressive in quite awhile, but he reasserted himself among the heavyweights in Saturday’s main event with a third-round TKO of 15th-ranked Rodrigo Nascimento.

“You don’t see too many almost 40-year-old mother f–kers do this shit,” Lewis said.

Those words came moments after a hard right hand landed just above the left ear of Nascimento, who’d won four of five UFC fights alongside a no contest. It dropped the Brazilian to the floor, where Lewis pounced and landed another dozen or so shots of varying effect before referee Jason Herzog pulled the plug at 49 seconds.

Lewis celebrated the win by removing his fight shorts, standing over his fallen foe and waving them over Nascimento as if he were trying to revive him.

It was the 15th finish in the UFC for the “Black Beast,” tying him with Dustin Poirier for fourth on the company’s all-time list.

“I couldn’t let no taxicab driver from Brazil beat me,” Lewis said. “I never even heard of the guy. I knew I couldn’t let him beat me.”

Joaquin Buckley is drawn to the spotlight.

He scored one of the UFC’s all-time best KO’s during its pandemic-prompted “Fight Island” phase and has never shied from an opportunity to chase a highlight-reel finish or make a click-worthy statement.

He shined in a chance to perform in his St. Louis backyard with a wide, three-round decision over streaking Nursulton Ruziboev, landing each of his four takedown attempts and 60 percent of his significant strike attempts to earn 30-27, 30-26 and 29-27 nods on the cards.

It was his fourth straight win and ninth in 13 UFC appearances, and it kept him undefeated since a move down the weight-class ladder from middleweight to welterweight.

But as impressive as the 15 minutes of dominance had been, the post-fight mic work—during which he called out UFC legend Conor McGregor—was even better.

“You say you’re fighting at 170 but you’re fighting a lightweight midget (in Michael Chandler) and you’re bullying Sean O’Malley and Ryan Garcia,” Buckley said. “Come and bully me, dog. Let’s see what you really about. It’s my time. If you wanna be the king, you’ve got to behead the king.”

There’s something about reckless abandon.

When it works, it’s awesome. When it doesn’t, it’s disastrous.

Saturday night was certainly the latter for Alonzo Menifield.

The burly 11th-ranked light heavyweight charged at opponent Carlos Ulberg to begin their main-card fight, but the New Zealander evaded the big swings, watched as his aggressive foe face-planted into the fence and quickly capitalized with precise violence.

He clipped a discombobulated Menifield with a right hand as he turned off the cage, then drove him to the floor with a left hook and landed one final right-hand shot that prompted the hand of referee Nick Berens after just 12 seconds—the third-fastest in 205-pound history.

It was Ulberg’s sixth straight victory, 11th in 12 pro fights, and ninth by finish. And it’ll certainly earn him a place in the rankings when the promotion’s list is updated on Monday.

“He’s got a lot of power. He’s explosive,” Ulberg said. “We knew he was gonna come forward. We did expect something like that and he did catch me and that woke me up.

“But when you wake a lion up, he comes out.”

Mateusz Rębecki was like a marathon runner in the final miles.

He performed with sprinter’s speed early, but once his lightweight fight with Diego Ferreira reached the halfway point, those miles started to add up.

Every movement looked labored. His eyes swelled. And the right eye began leaking, then pouring blood from a ghastly cut on the eyelid.

Ferreira, just four months removed from his 39th birthday, seized the moment as his foe became more compromised, lashing him with precise punches and kicks and dominating from mount positions when the activity got to the ground.

Ultimately, it was an accumulation of damage to the battered Rębecki that prompted referee Gary Copeland to stop the fight just nine seconds before the finish line.

It was Ferreira’s 10th win in 15 UFC appearances and ended Rębecki’s 16-fight overall win streak and his three-win run with the promotion.

“I knew Mateusz was gonna be a tough job to get done,” Ferreira said. “Our division is full of those dogs and that type of guy. And this fight was the type of life I have. Ups and downs. I made some mistakes in the first round trying to adapt to his games but it turned out OK.”

It’s good to be from St. Louis. Again.

For the second time on the night, a fighter waving the flag for the show’s host city went to the scorecards after a particularly narrow three-round scrap. And for the second time on the night, a fighter representing the 3-1-4 got the nod.

Long, lean featherweight Sean Woodson was the beneficiary in the main card’s second fight, earning a tight but unanimous decision over 30-fight UFC veteran Alex Caceres.

It wasn’t entirely undeserved, though B/R scored it 29-28 for Caceres as opposed to two 29-28 cards and one 30-27 for Woodson, who improved to 6-1-1 in the UFC and 12-1-1 as a pro.

He used his 6’2″ frame to represent his “Sniper” nickname in the first round, but was less busy and less frenetic than Caceres across the final 10 minutes, though he often punctuated exchanges with the more precise if not more punishing strikes.

He landed nearly 45 percent of his 226 significant strike attempts across three rounds while Caceres was slightly less accurate at 42.5 percent (85 of 200).

And afterward, Woodson didn’t seem as if it had been a question as he moved on to thanking fans and making a specific call-out of 12th-ranked contender Bryce Mitchell.

“It’s a dream come true being in the UFC, but this right here is another dream come true,” he said. “I’m the dark horse of the division. I’m coming for that belt. I promise you.”

Another hyped heavyweight. Another unveiling.

Cuban giant Robelis Despaigne arrived to St. Louis with five straight pro wins, all by finish, including four straight that lasted no more than 18 seconds.

So it’s easy to understand why fans and broadcasters were excited to see him in a main-card position on Saturday’s show.

It may be awhile before he generates that sort of interest again.

Faced with an opponent who neither cowered nor crumbled when faced with his imposing 6’7″, 262-pound frame, Despaigne was taken down once in each round and controlled for nearly 10 of 15 minutes on the way to a wide decision loss to Waldo Cortes-Acosta.

Two judges had it 30-27 in Cortes-Acosta’s favor and a third saw it 30-26 after the winner took the striking battle by a 130-28 margin, landing nearly 64 percent of his shots.

It was Cortes-Acosta’s fifth win in six UFC bouts since a win on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022.

Chase Hooper has been burdened with expectation.

He signed with the UFC and debuted just three months after his 20th birthday, but was widely dismissed after losing three of his first six bouts by age 23.

If Saturday is any indication, though, reports of his demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Somehow still just 24, Hooper put together the best performance of his still-young career and extended a subsequent win streak to three in a row with a dominant two-round finish of Russian lightweight Viacheslav Borshchev.

Though lauded as a high-end mat worker, Hooper landed the most important shot of the night with a looping left hand that dropped Borshchev to the mat in the first minute. He kept the fight on the floor while chasing submissions and dishing out hellish ground strikes for the balance of the round, then got things back to the floor in the opening seconds of the second.

Ultimately, he found a finish with a D’arce choke that ended things, albeit with some protest, after exactly three minutes of Round 2. Borshchev’s corner immediately claimed that he hadn’t meant to indicate a surrender, but the dissension didn’t deter from Hooper’s effort.

“Chase Hooper is a dangerous man,” analyst Laura Sanko said. “People need to start realizing that.”

Wow.

Just when it looked like the Fight Night show would consist of a series of series of close, intermittently interesting decisions, Esteban Ribovics kicked things up a notch.

Literally.

The Argentine lightweight provided the highlight moment of the night and his career with a head-kick KO of Terrance McKinney that came after just 37 seconds of combat.

It was his 12th finish in 13 career victories, his seventh in the first round, and his fourth in less than 40 seconds.

“This is what I told people,” he said. “This is my moment. This is my time.”

A newly-minted 28-year-old after a late April birthday, Ribovics took a shot from McKinney as he applied pressure and continued the exchange with the kick from the right side that ended as his shin crashed into the left side of his opponent’s unguarded face.

The blow rendered McKinney instantly helpless as he dropped to a seated position along the fence as his face curled into a semi-conscious sneer.

“My plan was go for it,” Ribovics said. “Go for the kill. Not stopping at any time. Go for the victory. I visualized it all week and it came true and I did it.”

It was something less than a “Sharknado.”

But the strawweight matchup between a pair of 5’1″ fighters nicknamed “Baby Shark” and “Tiny Tornado,” respectively, was a compelling competitive enterprise across 15 minutes.

Eleventh-ranked Tabatha Ricci aimed to defend her status at 125 pounds and was able to do so in the eyes of the judges, two of whom saw her a 29-28 winner to override a dissenting 29-28 scorecard in the direction of opponent Tecia Pennington.

The B/R card agreed, seeing it 29-28 for Ricci.

The Brazilian grappler was kept at a distance through the first five minutes but got things closer and more physical for most of the last two rounds, pinning Pennington along the fence and disrupting her aim to land damaging shots.

Pennington was able to stay on her feet in spite of the constant pressure, defending nine of 10 takedown attempts and landing 80 significant strikes to her opponent’s 54, but her own attack was neither consistent nor punishing enough.

“I knew that she had great takedown defense,” Ricci said. “She’s a very tough fighter. Very technical. It was a pleasure to share the cage with her.”

It almost didn’t matter who won.

After tedious 15-minute decisions in each of the show’s first two fights, the crowd in St. Louis was looking for some titillation.

Then Billy Ray Goff and Trey Waters delivered, big time.

The two welterweights traded hard blows while compromising each other’s gas tanks in a bout that’s sure to earn consideration as the night’s best.

A muscular 5’10” compared to Waters’ lanky 6’5″ frame, Goff found his success with pressure and tenacity while Waters did his best work with clean, sharp strikes that took advantage of Goff’s aggression.

Both men were wobbled and seemed on the verge of an imminent demise at several moments through the fight, and Waters chased a finish by guillotine choke after landing a series of hard blows in the second.

Goff rallied well in the final round, but the judges didn’t see it his way, instead delivering Waters the victory by two 30-27 counts and another by 29-28. The B/R card went the other direction and saw Goff a 29-28 winner.

Waters, indirectly, seemed surprised at the win.

“Hats off to Billy. He’s tough. Not just tough. He’s good,” he said. “He said he was gonna do that. I didn’t think he could but he did it. Hats off to the man.”

St. Louis may be the undisputed “Gateway to the West.”

But it might not be the best place for competitive visitors.

Englishman Jake Hadley had a difficult enough task in front of him in the form of flyweight Charles Johnson, but the fact that Johnson was a local hero and clearly the favorite of the fans packed into the Enterprise Center didn’t help things.

Hadley was clearly more effective in pressuring the more dynamic Johnson to the fence in the first and seemed to have repeated the feat in the third, but the judges saw it differently while giving Johnson a unanimous decision by a trio of matching 29-28 scores.

Johnson was the better fighter in the second round and dropped Hadley with a single shot in the final minute, but he didn’t follow up on the advantage in the third and didn’t appear to have done enough to feel confident a decision was coming.

But it didn’t deter him from post-fight bravado.

“These dudes can’t f–k with me,” said Johnson, now 4-4 in the promotion and a winner of two straight. “I work too hard.”

Veronica Hardy’s is not the road most traveled.

The Venezuelan flyweight was just 1-4 in her first five UFC fights before a prolonged hiatus that lasted a few days longer than three years.

It seems to have worked, though, because the now-28-year-old made it three straight wins since her return with a narrow but fair unanimous decision over JJ Aldrich in Saturday’s show-opener on the preliminary card.

She was the faster, sharper and more dynamic fighter through the first two rounds, landing noticeable, if not plentiful, punches, kicks and elbows to offset Aldrich’s attempts to make it a grapple-heavy fight along the fence.

Aldrich did get things to the floor in the third and earned the round on all three cards but it was her only measure of success while falling to 9-6 in the UFC.

“As always, I feel like I could have done better and should have done better,” said Hardy, now even at 4-4 in the UFC. “To be able to come in here and face (Aldrich) tonight and come out with a victory, I’m very proud of myself.”

Main Card

Derrick Lewis def. Rodrigo Nascimento by TKO (strikes), 0:49, Round 3

Joaquin Buckley def. Nursulton Ruziboev by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 29-27)

Carlos Ulberg def. Alonzo Menifield by KO (strikes), 0:12, Round 1

Diego Ferreira def. Mateusz Rębecki by TKO (strikes), 4:51, Round 3

Sean Woodson def. Alex Caceres by unanimous decision (29-28, 28-28, 30-27)

Waldo Cortes-Acosta def. Robelis Despaigne by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)

Preliminary Card

Chase Hooper def. Viacheslav Borshchev by submission (D’arce choke), 3:00, Round 2

Esteban Ribovics def. Terrance McKinney by KO (head kick), 0:37, Round 1

Tabatha Ricci def. Tecia Pennington by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)

Trey Waters def. Billy Ray Goff (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Charles Johnson def. Jake Hadley by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Veronica Hardy def. JJ Aldrich by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)