Derrick Lewis overcomes adversity to blitz through Alexey Oleynik
Derrick Lewis became a UFC record holder with his knockout win over submission specialist Alexey Oleynik last night.
The Houston, Texas native has now scored 11 knockout wins in the UFC heavyweight division, overtaking the record of 10 held by Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos.
It didn’t come easy, though.
Lewis played with fire after taking Oleynik down in the opening round and almost paid for it. Oleynik seized upon a scarf hold after reversing position on the floor and Lewis had to grit through that to escape a precarious situation and make it to round two.
Learning his lesson, Lewis didn’t want any more of Oleynik’s ground game and took the fight to him standing instead.
Lewis launched himself at Oleynik with a flying knee to begin proceedings in the second round, before knocking him down with a big right hook.
Some follow-up punches saw the referee wave the fight off and Lewis made it three wins in a row.
Chris Weidman back on track after decisioning Omari Akhmedov
Chris Weidman is back at 185 pounds and is back in the win column.
It wasn’t the prettiest of performances from the UFC middleweight champion, but Weidman did enough to get his career back on track with his unanimous decision win over Omari Akhmedov.
After a solid first round, things didn’t look good for Weidman in the second. He looked his gas tank was running on empty as he was taken down on multiple occasions.
However, Weidman managed to dig into his reserves in the final five minutes to seal the victory.
“The All-American” scored a takedown of his own, via a trip, and took Akhmedov’s back. Weidman soon transitioned to full mount and threatened with an arm-triangle choke. While that didn’t come off, he maintained position to land some elbows on top to finish the fight in a dominant way.
The cage-side judges scored the contest 29-27, 29-27, 29-28 in Weidman’s favour. This victory saw the Long Islander snap Akhemdov’s run of six fights unbeaten.
UFC Fight Night 174: Lewis vs. Oleynik recap and full results
Heavyweight: Derrick Lewis def. Aleksei Oleynik by TKO (punches) at 0:21 of round two
Middleweight: Chris Weidman def. Omari Akhmedov by unanimous decision after three rounds
Middleweight: Darren Stewart def. Maki Pitolo by submission (guillotine choke) at 3:41 of round one
Women’s Bantamweight: Yana Kunitskaya def. Julija Stoliarenko by unanimous decision after three rounds
Catchweight: Beneil Dariush def. Scott Holtzman by KO (spinning back fist) at 4:38 of round one
Catchweight: Tim Means def. Laureano Staropoli by unanimous decision after three rounds
Middleweight: Kevin Holland def. Joaquin Buckley by TKO (punch) at 0:32 of round three
Lightweight: Nasrat Haqparast def. Alexander Muñoz by unanimous decision after three rounds
Middleweight: Andrew Sanchez def. Wellington Turman by KO (punch) at 4:14 of round one
Featherweight: Gavin Tucker def. Justin Jaynes by submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:43 of round three
Featherweight: Youssef Zalal def. Peter Barrett by unanimous decision after three rounds
Bantamweight: Irwin Rivera def. Ali AlQaisi by split decision after three rounds