UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Lewis Preview

UFC Vegas 19 happens this Saturday night, February 20, at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card can be seen on BT Sports and streamed on ESPN+.

Heavyweight fighter’s Curtis Blaydes and Derek Lewis are penciled down to headline the upcoming UFC Vegas 19 card this Saturday night. Blaydes (14-2), is riding a four fight win streak coming into this fight. Two of those wins came in 2019 against Justin Willis and Shamil Abdurakhimov. In 2020 Blaydes picked up his two biggest wins to date when he finished Junior dos Santos, Blaydes also picked up a decision victory over Alexander Volkov.

Derek Lewis (24-7) will be the man standing on the other side of the octagon facing Blaydes. Lewis himself has picked up three wins on the bounce. “The Black Beast” took out Blagoy Ivanov in 2019, he then went on to beat Ilir Latifi and Aleksei Oleinik in 2020. They say styles makes fights and this is a classic case of a striker vs. grappler matchup. Blaydes will be looking for the takedown at all costs, while Lewis will be looking to land big shots on the feet. This is a really interesting stylistic match up and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes down.

The co-main event is a bantamweight encounter between two emerging prospects, Ketlen Vieira (11-1) and Yana Kunitskaya (13-5). Amanda Nunes will be looking for a new challenger, and a win for either fighter in this bout will put them in contention for a crack at the title.

Darrick Minner (25-11) and Charles Rosa (13-4) are set to throw down in the featherweight division. Heavyweight veteran, Aleksei Oleinik (59-14) looks to get back into the win column when he takes on heavy hitter Chris Daukaus (10-3). Nassourdine Imavov (9-2) will face off against Phil Hawes. Hawes (9-2) has stopped each of his last five opponents and is always exciting to watch.

UK standout Tom Aspinall (9-2) will come up against his toughest challenger to date. Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski (30-19) will be Aspinall’s dance partner and that fight will kick off the main card.

Moving to the prelims, a bout between Jared Gordon (16-4) and Danny Chavez (11-3) will headline that section of the card in the 145-pound division. Luis Pena steps in as a late replacement for Jai Herbert, who unfortunately had to pull out. Pena will take on Drakkar Klose (11-2-1) who is fighting out the last fight of his UFC contract.

Eddie Wineland (24-14-1) is in desperate need of a win with only one win in his last four, he takes on John Castañeda (17-5) in the bantamweight division. Up in the featherweight division a bout between Julian Erosa (24-8) and Nate Landwehr (14-3) is set to go down. I reckon that fight will be very entertaining. Rafael Alves (19-9) and Pat Sabatini (13-3) will also fight in the 145-pound division.

At flyweight, Shana Dobson (4-4) is set to square off against undefeated Scottish woman Casey O’Neill (5-0). Chas Skelly (18-3) fights for the first time since 2019, he will match up against Jamall Emmers (18-5) in the featherweight division. Aiemann Zahabi (7-2), brother of Tristar head coach Firas, will go up against Drako Rodriguez (7-1) at 135 pounds. Romanian native Sergey Spivak (11-2) will face off against UFC newcomer Jared Vanderaa at the heavyweight limit of 265 pounds, that bout gets all the action kicked off on what is a very good card overall.

Main card (ESPN+/BT Sports, 8pm ET)

Heavyweight: Curtis Blaydes vs. Derrick Lewis
Women’s Bantamweight: Ketlen Vieira vs. Yana Kunitskaya
Featherweight: Charles Rosa vs. Darrick Minner
Heavyweight: Aleksei Oleinik vs. Chris Daukaus
Middleweight: Phil Hawes vs. Nassourdine Imavov
Heavyweight: Andrei Arlovski vs. Tom Aspinall

Preliminary card (ESPN+/BT Sports 5pm ET)

Featherweight: Pat Sabatini vs. Rafael Alves
Featherweight: Jared Gordon vs. Danny Chavez
Lightweight: Drakkar Klose vs. Luis Peña
Bantamweight: Eddie Wineland vs. John Castañeda
Featherweight: Nate Landwehr vs. Julian Erosa
Women’s Flyweight: Shana Dobson vs. Casey O’Neill
Featherweight: Chas Skelly vs. Jamall Emmers
Bantamweight: Aiemann Zahabi vs. Drako Rodriguez
Heavyweight: Sergey Spivak vs. Jared Vanderaa