Junior Dos Santos. AP
WICHITA, Kan. — Junior Dos Santos stopped Derrick Lewis by technical knockout Saturday night in the main event at UFC Fight Night in Wichita.
“I’m feeling very good,” the 35-year-old Dos Santos said after his 15th knockout. “I work on my combinations all of the time, so I knew at some point I was going to connect.”
Connect he did. In the second round of the bout, the Brazilian laid a combination of punches to Lewis, forcing him into the cage. As Lewis fell, Dos Santos lunged toward him and laid down the punches that got him the knockout win.
At the beginning of that round, Lewis started off with a kick to Dos Santos’ head. It was the same form of kick that caused Dos Santos to bleed from his eye in the match’s first round. Lewis also laid a load of punches into Dos Santos throughout the match.
“He has really heavy hands,” Dos Santos said. “He connected well. I knew I had to avoid his power.”
In the beginning of the main event, Dos Santos was warned as he poked Lewis in the eye. Dos Santos started bleeding around the eye due to Lewis’ kick, but responded by laying punches and a kick to the abdomen that put Lewis in obvious pay for the remainder of the round.
The 246-pound Dos Santos (21-5) doesn’t care who he fights next in the octagon.
“I want fights,” Dos Santos said. “I’m here to fight again and regain my belt.”
With the loss, Lewis (21-7) has lost his second fight in a row by knockout. At UFC 230, Lewis was unable to defeat Daniel Cormier for the heavyweight belt.
The rest of the fight card didn’t disappoint, either. Niko Price laid a massive right hook that knocked down Tim Means in one of the night’s final fights. Price pounced on top of Means, laying a barrage of punches that gave him the win by knockout
“As soon as they told me Tim Means, I was ready for war,” Price said. “I just bit down and started throwing back. He stumbled me a bit. Once I hit the cage, I threw a right hand and he didn’t move his head.”
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos submitted Curtis Millender in the first round.
For the card’s co-main event, Zaleski dos Santos used his background in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Tay to keep Millender on the ground, forcing him to submit.
“I’m a capoeira fighter by nature,” Zaleski Dos Santos said. “I’m a complete fighter. With every fight, I’m showing more of my game. This fight, it just happened that there was a clear advantage for me.”
“I took my time, found my moment and just ran with it.”