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This weekend sees Derrick Lewis back in action, as he’s set to headline the UFC’s latest Fight Night event against Sergey Spivak. Unsurprisingly, many fans are expecting a knockout.
Ever since his octagon debut in 2014, Derrick Lewis has been a knockout machine, breaking the UFC’s record for the most KOs with a remarkable total of 13 – so which are his best?
Naturally, ‘The Black Beast’ has plenty to choose from, ranging from one-hit killers to brutal stoppages via ground-and-pound. He’s taken out some incredible opponents, too.
So before he aims for his 14th knockout in the octagon, here are Derrick Lewis’ five most memorable knockouts to date.
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#5. Derrick Lewis vs. Gabriel Gonzaga – UFC Fight Night 86
In his early years with the UFC, while it was immediately clear that Derrick Lewis carried insane power in his punches, he also seemed to be a somewhat limited fighter who would probably come up short against elite-level foes.
That idea changed as time went on, and the first suggestion that ‘The Black Beast’ could climb into contention came when he knocked out former UFC heavyweight title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga in early 2016.
Admittedly, ‘Napao’ was largely past his prime at the time of the fight, but with a world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu game, he still looked like a pretty nasty match for Lewis from a stylistic point of view.
Indeed, early on, Gonzaga took the fight to the mat, and Lewis appeared to be in big danger. However, he somehow managed to stifle his Brazilian foe, and when referee Marc Goddard called a stand-up, ‘The Black Beast’ smelt blood.
With seconds remaining in the first round, he seemed to explode from nowhere, hitting Gonzaga with a right hand and then following with a surprisingly fast combination that knocked him senseless.
The finish was not only remarkable for its brutality, but for its sudden nature, too, as nobody really suspected that Lewis could move so quickly. Eight years on, it remains one of Lewis’s best knockouts.
#4. Derrick Lewis vs. Chris Daukaus – UFC Fight Night 199
When Derrick Lewis entered the octagon to take on Chris Daukaus in December 2021, it felt like he’d entered new territory in terms of his UFC career. Rather than chasing for the heavyweight title, which he’d failed to gain on two attempts, he was now a gatekeeper, looking to fend off rising prospects who were looking to reach the top.
Daukaus was one such prospect, having won his first four fights in the octagon, all by knockout. He was hoping that a win over ‘The Black Beast’ could push him firmly into title contention.
That never happened, though, as Lewis not only severed him from consciousness after just over three minutes, but he also broke the UFC’s record for the most knockouts in the process, taking his total to 13.
The fight was strangely slow-paced in the early going, but as usual, once he felt like he had his opponent hurt, Lewis immediately opened up violently.
This time, he seemed to stun Daukaus with a switch kick. From there, Lewis bombarded him with punches that left him reeling. Even though Daukaus tried to fire back, the fight was essentially over.
A trio of uppercuts finally did the trick, sending Daukaus down and out. Lewis didn’t even need to follow up.
The bout’s aftermath saw ‘The Black Beast’ celebrate in a bizarre way – by throwing his protective cup into the crowd – but at the end of the day, his work had been done in truly vicious fashion.
#3. Derrick Lewis vs. Aleksei Oleinik – UFC Fight Night 174
Throughout his career with the UFC, Derrick Lewis has always shown a major Achilles heel in the form of his ground game.
While he’d proven that he could be dangerous with punches from the top, he’d also traditionally struggled with fighters capable of planting him on his back, particularly those with deadly submission skills.
When he was matched with submission ace Aleksei Oleinik in the summer of 2020, then, on paper, it looked like a horrible fight for ‘The Black Beast’, with many observers expecting him to lose.
Early on, it looked like those doomsayers would be right. Despite hurting Oleinik early, Lewis allowed the fight to hit the ground and found himself dominated, with ‘The Boa Constrictor’ coming close with more than one choke before the round ended.
In the second, though, ‘The Black Beast’ had evidently had enough of tangling with the Russian on the ground. Instead, he came out wildly and dropped the veteran with a right hand before pounding him senseless on the ground.
The ferocity of this finish was what made it so memorable, as it literally felt like Lewis had just gotten bored with defending against Oleinik’s ground game and decided instead to switch off his lights.
It was another reminder that ‘The Black Beast’ possessed perhaps the most dangerous punching power in the entire UFC.
#2. Derrick Lewis vs. Curtis Blaydes – UFC Fight Night 185
When Derrick Lewis faced off against Curtis Blaydes in early 2021, it felt likely that a shot at the UFC heavyweight title was on the line. Given that ‘Razor’ had beaten the likes of Junior dos Santos and Alexander Volkov prior to the fight, he came in as a big favorite.
However, in an exciting fight, it was ‘The Black Beast’ who came out on top, once again demonstrating that in the octagon, his insane punching power could be the ultimate equalizer.
After struggling through the first round, which saw Blaydes largely pick Lewis apart with a series of nasty low kicks and punches from range, it looked like ‘The Black Beast’ was on his way to a defeat. After all, Blaydes hadn’t even used his powerful wrestling at that point.
Before he got a chance, though, ‘The Black Beast’ did his usual: he switched his lights off with a huge punch. In this instance, it was a perfectly-timed uppercut that connected cleanly with Blaydes’ jaw as he ducked down for a telegraphed takedown attempt.
‘Razor’ was out cold as he hit the ground, but that didn’t stop Lewis hammering him with two more punches to make sure.
Blaydes took a lengthy time to come around from the knockout, showing once again that Lewis’ punching power was unique, even in the UFC’s land of the giants.
#1. Derrick Lewis vs. Alexander Volkov – UFC 229
While all of his knockouts have been memorable to an extent, it’s probably fair to say that Derrick Lewis’ signature finish remains his violent stoppage of Alexander Volkov in late 2018.
The bout took place on the UFC’s best-selling pay-per-view ever – UFC 229, which was headlined by Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov. In many ways, Lewis’ finish stole the show until the main event.
Essentially, the knockout belongs amongst the greatest comebacks in UFC history. Lewis was being destroyed by Volkov from the opening moments of the fight, as he simply couldn’t get inside the giant reach of the Russian and found himself eating a number of nasty shots, particularly to the body.
By the third round, Volkov was clearly brimming with confidence, and when he landed a nasty combination that caused Lewis to double over in pain, the fight looked all but over.
Incredibly, though, ‘Drago’ couldn’t find a finish. By letting Lewis off the hook, he paved the way for something truly insane to happen.
With 20 seconds remaining, ‘The Black Beast’ countered a low kick with a wild overhand right that dropped Volkov hard. The Russian tried to recover, but before he could even try to get to his feet, Lewis was on him with more coffin nail punches – and eventually, ‘Drago’ went out.
The fight was stopped with just over ten seconds to go, and had it gone the distance, Lewis would almost certainly have lost. It was a truly crazy comeback, and one that was only made possible by the devastating punching power of ‘The Black Beast’.
