Lewis bounces back in style, stops De Lima in 33 seconds

Derrick Lewis returned to the win column in style Saturday night, defeating Marcos Rogerio de Lima via TKO at the 0:33 mark of the first round in a heavyweight bout at UFC 291 in Salt Lake City.

Lewis, who entered the fight as a sizable underdog, landed a flying knee in the opening seconds a la Jorge Masvidal and then pummeled De Lima with ground-and-pound until the referee intervened.

After the fight, Lewis took off his shorts as a throwback to his legendary “balls was hot” postfight comment in 2017.

With the win, Lewis once again the holds the most knockouts in UFC history (14).

“The Black Beast” revealed postfight that he is a free agent and hopes to sign a new contract with the promotion.

This was his first victory since December 2021. Lewis had previously dropped three in a row, losing to Tai Tuivasa, Sergei Pavlovich, and Serghei Spivac by stoppage.

De Lima’s two-fight winning streak came to an end.