Derrick Lewis proved he was too much too soon for Tallison Teixeira and extended his record for the most knockout wins in UFC history.
Lewis finished Teixeira in a mere 35 seconds Saturday night in the main event of a UFC Fight Night in Nashville.
The 40-year-old earned his 16th UFC knockout and was competing in his 13th UFC main event, while Teixeira, 25, was participating in just his ninth professional mixed martial arts bout.
Teixeira began his career 8-0 with eight first-round stoppage wins but the promising six-foot-seven prospect had never fought anybody with the experience or ability of Lewis, who has now won three of his past four.
Lewis hadn’t fought since beating Rodrigo Nascimento 14 months ago.
Teixeira appeared to bother Lewis with a jab in the opening seconds but Lewis charged forward and dropped his opponent with a left hand and landed a series of follow-up strikes that led to the referee calling a halt to the action.
The co-main event saw Gabriel Bonfim escape with a split decision win over Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in a clash of styles in the welterweight division.
Bonfim, 27, improved to 18-1 but was unable to drag the bout to the mat to work his ground game. At age 42, Thompson is the oldest fighter currently on the UFC roster and showed admirable takedown and grappling defence against a fighter with 13 career submission victories.
Thompson even rocked Bonfim with a head kick late in the second round moments after he split his left shin open on a low kick that was checked by Bonfim.
The former two-time title challenger has now lost three in a row and five of six over the past four years and his UFC future is unclear. Thompson has notable career wins over past UFC champions Robert Whittaker and Johnny Hendricks, plus Kevin Holland, Jorge Masvidal and Rory MacDonald.
Thompson fought Tyron Woodley twice for the 170-pound title that resulted in a majority draw in 2016 and a majority decision loss in the immediate rematch in 2017.
Also on the main card, France’s Morgan Charriere played spoiler on the road by taking out Tennessee’s own Nate Landwehr in the third round of their featherweight meeting. Landwehr is a 37-year-old fan favourite from Clarksville, Tenn., who has lost two straight and three of his past four. He was also finished in the third round by Doo-ho Choi in December.
Steve Garcia got his hand raised with a unanimous decision over Calvin Kattar in a matchup of featherweights going in different directions.
Garcia extended his active win streak to six in a row, while Kattar is now on a five-fight losing streak and has dropped six of his past seven overall. Garcia took advantage of his reach from his southpaw stance to keep Kattar at distance and more than tripled Kattar in significant strikes landed. Garcia connected on 85 compared to just 26 for Kattar who was dropped by Garcia briefly in the third round.
This was the first fight on Garcia’s hot streak that went the distance and required the judges, all of whom scored the 145-pound bout 30-27 in favour of Garcia.
The 33-year-old rising contender should find himself ranked when the UFC’s official ranking get updated next week since Kattar, 37, was holding onto the No. 14 spot in the featherweight rankings despite his cold streak.
Vitor Petrino made good on his heavyweight debut by submitting Austen Lane within one round. Brazil’s Petrino was moving up from the 205-pound division after being submitted by Anthony Smith and knocked out by Dustin Jacoby in consecutive outings. Petrino, 27, began his MMA career 11-0 and was 4-0 at the UFC level before his back-to-back losses last year. Lane has now lost four of his past five and has been finished within two rounds in each of his losses.
Tuco Tokkos earned his first UFC win in the opening bout of the main card, submitting Junior Tafa in the second-round of their light-heavyweight contest. Tafa was moving down from the heavyweight division.
Valter Walker, Jake Matthews and Fatima Kline were among the winning fighters on a finish-filled preliminary card.
