Derrick Lewis and Curtis Blaydes face off in a heavyweight bout for the main event of UFC Vegas 19 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis comes into this game with a 24-7 record overall and coming into this fight he has won three in a row. Lewis last fight came against Aleksei Oleinik in August and it was a dominant victory. Lewis landed some big punches in the second round and finished the fight by knockout. Lewis is averaging 2.64 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 2.09 significant strikes per minute. Lewis for the most part wants to keep the fight on the feet but he is averaging 0.54 takedowns every 15 minutes. Lewis is only successful on 28 percent of his takedown attempts and he stops 52 percent of his opponents takedown attempts. In this fight it’s going to be about his hands and throwing them early to finish the fight.
On the other side of this matchup is Curtis “Razor” Blaydes who sits with a 14-2 record overall and he has won four fights in a row. Blaydes last fight came against Alexander Volkov in June of 2020 and in that fight he had 14 takedowns, and came away with a unanimous decision. Not every fight Blaydes gets the fight to the ground, Blaydes is averaging 3.55 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 1.73 significant strikes per minute. Blaydes is averaging 6.98 takedowns every 15 minutes and he is successful on 55 percent of his attempts. Blaydes only stops 35 percent of his opponents' takedown attempts.
Blaydes is going to get this fight to the ground and be dominant, but I don’t think Lewis is going to go out early. Look for there to be no doubt that Blaydes is coming away with a victory but it will go the distance. Back Blaydes by decision.