8 March 2019, by: Quintin van Jaarsveld
UFC FIGHT NIGHT – LEWIS v DOS SANTOS PREDICTIONS
In the wake of the biggest card of 2019 so far, Saturday’s (Sunday morning SA time) UFC Fight Night is flying somewhat under the radar. Fight fans shouldn’t sleep on the event taking place at the Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita though.
Fiiiiiiiiiight weeeeeeeek!!!! Derrick Lewis vs JDS this Saturday LIVE on ESPN+! pic.twitter.com/6FeMuBx1bc
— Dana White (@danawhite) March 4, 2019
The main event between top 10 heavyweights Derrick Lewis and Junior dos Santos is set to be a slugfest, while household names like Tim Means, Ben Rothwell and Tim Boetsch are also on the card.
The judges won’t be needed for this heavyweight headliner. As far as predictions go, this one’s a nightmare, but as for the fight itself, it promises to produce plenty of fireworks.
Both are big, aggressive knockout artists, third-ranked Lewis boasting 18 KOs and eighth-ranked Dos Santos 14. The charismatic “Black Beast” is playing mind games with “Cigano”, calling him his “weakest” opponent in years.
Granted, Lewis fought for the title in his last Octagon appearance, suffering a second-round submission loss to Daniel Cormier at UFC 230 in New York in December. Prior to that, he’d racked up consecutive wins over Alexander Volkov, Francis Ngannou and Marcin Tybura.
That said, underestimating former champion Dos Santos, who won the title with a first-round stoppage of Cain Velasquez in 2011, would be extremely dangerous on Lewis’ part. The resurgent Brazilian has won two in a row and at 35, it’s a must-win fight for him if he’s to keep his title hopes alive.
Dos Santos has more tools and avenues to win the bout than the throwback, one-dimensional American. This is the perfect time for the black belt to fight clever and utilise his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills, although I don’t see him going that route. I’m expecting both behemoths to come out swinging for the fences, with the more technical Dos Santos getting off first similar to his knockout of Gilbert Yvel back in 2010.
Prediction: Dos Santos via first-round KO.
UFC Wichita goes down this weekend. Check out the main card now ? . . ➡️ Derrick Lewis vs. Junior dos Santos ➡️ Elizeu Zaleski vs. Curtis Millender ➡️ Niko Price vs. Tim Means ➡️ Ben Rothwell vs. Blagoy Ivanov ➡️ Beneil Dariush vs… https://t.co/9PIi7vHDFZ pic.twitter.com/crjtX7w4h7 — Susan Cingari MMA (@SusanCingari) March 4, 2019