UFC Nashville: Bridgestone Arena; Nashville, TN
It’s a very fine line when bringing up a new young talent. Do you throw them into the deep end of the pool. Or do you baby them along the way one step at a time. A longer climb, yes; however one that is tried and true. So was it really a bad idea to put Tallison Teixeira in a main event, one fight into his UFC career.
He’s blitzed through LFA. And the Brazilian is just massive size. The upside is one heck of a story. Well, that all came to a crashing hault just 35 seconds into the opening round thanks to Derrick Lewis. With these two hard hitters, there was no reason to have judges sitting cageside. Teixeira had never seen a second round in eight fights, and Lewis is the UFC king of knockouts.
Lewis opened with a jumping switch kick to try to throw some confusion at the 25-year old. But Teixeira was taking the center of the octagon to control distance with his 83-inch reach. In fact he did graze the left eye of Lewis, that had to affect his vision, even if just for a second. Thinking it was more than it was Teixeira rushed into space. The Black Beast’s modus operandi took over, swinging wide. And a left hook dropped the Brazilian. Lewis wasted no time and jumped on him with ground and pound. Teixeira got back to his feet with the help of grabbing the cage.
Was he out on his feet? No. Did he look in massive trouble? Not really. But referee JASON HERZOG, jumped in to stop the fight right there. The TKO victory is nuber 24 for Lewis, and the 16th in the UFC. He is also now on a back to back knockout streak; albeit 14-months apart. Lewis is also now the 13th fighter with 20 or more UFC victories.
Was It Really A Bad Booking
Teixeira learned the hard way what happens when you make the slightest bad move. He did look for a couple of seconds like he would have given Lewis some problems. But crashing space against someone with major dynamite in the gloves when not truly out of it, is not a way to be successful. He will learn from this no doubt. His size, athleticism will have his hand raised more often than not. Plus it’s new blood the division needs.
For his part, after Lewis through his cup and more into the crowd, he didn’t mention any names he wants next. Except for his wife. But Jailton Almeida who is a little more than a one-trick pony might be next if he wants to make a legit run at the strap now owned by Tom Aspinall. If Lewis was to drop Almeida, he might think twice about going down after him. He is nasty off his back, and standing has shown some pretty fair footwork. Along with a hard kicking game.
You do have to wonder though, what President Trump said to him over the phone immediately post-fight.
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