“A scary time to stop the fight”: Pros react to Derrick Lewis’ controversial knockout victory at UFC Nashville

Derrick Lewis is the king of knockouts. But he may have had some help in this.

Officially, the main event for UFC Nashville ended with Lewis earning a TKO from Tarison Teixeira just 35 seconds into the opening round. Lewis appeared to have been swung early by either Teixeira’s strike or accidental eye thrusts, but there was no pause in the action, so Lewis began firing punches in response.

As he recovered, Lewis’ trademark Swangin’ and Bangin Style began paying dividends, and soon Teisheira was upset. After a hard punch shook the towering Brazilian and Lewis, more power punches followed as Teixeira scrambled to protect herself. Teixeira blatantly grabbed the fance with both hands and returned to her feet, referee Jason Herzog wielding the match before leaning away from Lewis.

Social media fighters didn’t know what to do with Herzog’s appeal. “It’s a terrible time to stop fighting!” Alain Juvan tweeted: “It’s a terrible time to stop fighting!”

Anyway, Lewis has expanded his UFC knockout record to 16, and is now tied to Donald “Cowboy” Theron, the third most halted in UFC history, and is tracking only Jim Miller (17) and Charles Oliveira (20).

Check out the fighter’s reactions from social media below.