Preview: UFC Nashville ‘Lewis vs. Teixeira’

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday will pull up in Music City for the first time in nearly two years, and the theme song will be “Circle of Life,” as a recurring narrative on the main card is that of old lions making way for the young ones. Of the top three fights at UFC Nashville, two will feature a fighter over age 40 in the red corner, with 37-year-old youngster Calvin Kattar the spring chicken of the bunch. While Kattar’s four-fight losing streak is the most severe slide of the three, Derrick Lewis and Stephen Thompson are both 2-4 in their last six fights. Across from those three veteran contenders will be younger and presumably hungrier challengers looking to use them as steppingstones to bigger and better things.

Beyond those matchups, UFC Nashville is low on divisional relevance but rich with the promise of violence. Another interesting feature of the main card as well as the prelims is fighters trying their luck in new weight divisions; Junior Tafa and Vitor Petrino can give each other a figurative high five as Tafa heads down to light heavyweight while Petrino moves up to tangle with the big boys. Add in some hometown appeal with the inclusion of Nate Landwehr, one of the few native Tennesseans on roster, and the six-fight main card sounds like a fun, fast night of fisticuffs.

Now to the preview for UFC on ESPN 70 “Lewis vs. Teixeira”:

Heavyweights

Derrick Lewis (28-12, 1 NC; 20-10 UFC) vs. Tallison Teixeira (8-0, 1-0 UFC)

ODDS: Teixeira (-270); Lewis (+225)

As one-half of Sherdog’s UFC preview podcast for the last four or five years, I’ve covered a lot of Lewis’ fights, and as a native Houstonian I’ve followed the big man’s career with interest since the beginning. Until fairly recently, my standard rap about “The Black Beast” went more or less: “Everything you think you know about Lewis is wrong, ‘you’ in this case meaning the average casual UFC fan.” His gaudy knockout numbers, hilarious post-fight celebrations and insouciant demeanor on the mic give the impression of a lumbering, lazy, one-dimensional slugger.

In fact, Lewis is a frighteningly nimble heavyweight who employs flying knees and head kicks with ease, and while he often looks tired in fights, he never stops throwing effective offense; long before he captured the UFC’s all-time knockout record, he was the promotion’s career leader in KOs in the third round or later. Even at heavyweight, that is not the accomplishment of a lazy fighter.

Having said that, at 40, with the wear and tear of 30 UFC fights and a history of back injuries, Lewis is clearly slipping. For years, his “jiu-jitsu doesn’t work on me; I just get up” ground game was shockingly effective against anyone not named Daniel Cormier, but in more recent outings, determined wrestlers such as Serghei Spivac and Jailton Almeida exploited Lewis’ takedown defense and were able to give him very short and very long nights at the office, respectively.

Equally concerning, while his legendary punching power appears undiminished—just ask Rodrigo Nascimento—the elite reflexes, hand speed and durability that once made him an absolute terror in close quarters have slipped to the point that opponents like Tai Tuivasa have entered the phone booth with him and emerged triumphant.

Lewis may not be all that he once was, but the question remains whether Teixeira is far along enough in his development to handle this massive step up in competition. A full decade and a half younger than Lewis and less than four years removed from his professional debut, the 6-foot-8 “Xicao” is the definition of a promising, but green prospect. The Brazilian has finished his first eight opponents in less time than a single three-round fight.

That alone would make it difficult to gauge his skills, but most of those wins also came in second-tier Brazilian promotions against opponents who were simply overwhelmed by Teixeira’s size, speed and power. Offensively, Teixeira makes good use of his giant frame, marching forward and smashing his foes with a long jab, which he pairs with a decent right cross and some very hard leg kicks. When shorter opponents close the distance, he meets them with knees and a heavy clinch that takes advantage of his leverage, only to shuck them off and go back to punching.

That is the good news. The bad news is that Teixeira exhibits some poor habits on defense—head high in the air, backing straight up when pressed—and while none of his opponents have yet had the wherewithal to make him pay for them, Lewis absolutely can. If Lewis’ physical decline is accelerating, or if he is finally as unimpressed with his own fight career as he has always pretended to be, there is every possibility that Teixeira destroys him quickly, as he did to Justin Tafa earlier this year in what was supposed to be his first big test. Ditto if Lewis is competitively sound, but Teixeira has made major strides in the five months since the Tafa fight—always a possibility when talking about a 25-year-old fighter who is finally able to train full-time. However, the pick here is that Lewis will survive the early blitz from “Xicao,” time him and put his head on a swivel for him like he has to countless taller foes over the years.

The prediction is a late first-round KO for “The Black Beast,” and that the post-fight balls will be as hot as Nashville chicken.



Jump To »
Lewis vs. Teixeira
Thompson vs. Bonfim
Kattar vs. Garcia
Landwehr vs. Charriere
Petrino vs. Lane
Tafa vs. Tokkos
The Prelims