Can The "Black Beast" Upset Dos Santos?
Published on March 7th, 2019 5:11 pm ESTWritten By: Dave Manuel
The main event of the fourth edition of UFC on ESPN+ will see former Heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos take on Derrick Lewis. Dos Santos and Lewis are two of the more popular Heavyweights with fans, as both men have great personalities and knockout power. Dos Santos, as mentioned, is a former Heavyweight champion who seems to have gotten things back on track with recent wins over Tai Tuivasa and Blagoy Ivanov. Dos Santos is still just 35 years of age and has plenty of time to take another run at the Heavyweight title.
Derrick Lewis, on the other hand, is coming off of a loss to Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 230. Prior to that, Lewis had three straight wins, including wins over Alexander Volkov, Francis Ngannou and Marcin Tybura.
Both men have tremendous knockout power, though Dos Santos is certainly the more well-rounded fighter, as he has a black belt in BJJ under Yuri Carlton. Lewis, as is the case in all of his fights, will need to keep things on the feet in order to have a chance of winning the fight. In addition, Dos Santos has had a number of longer fights, so the longer things go, the more it will play to his advantage.
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Let's take a look at the odds for this fight, courtesy of Bet365:
Source: Bet365
Time Stamp: March 7th, 2019 4:35 pm EST
Odds Subject to Change
Derrick Lewis, 2.70
Junior dos Santos, 1.50
Will the Fight Go The Distance?
Yes, 3.25
No, 1.33
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The most intriguing line to me is the "Will the Fight Go The Distance?" line. Derrick Lewis gets extremely tired after the first round of his fights, and given how hard these two men hit, there is practically no chance (in my mind) that things last until the championship rounds.
Junior dos Santos certainly deserves to be the favourite in this fight - will Derrick Lewis be able to pull off the upset?
