Tough Saturday night for Philadelphia’s Chris Daukaus, who suffered his first UFC loss.
It was his first main event, and he was fighting Derrick Lewis out in Vegas in a five-round headliner. The fight ended in the late first round:
THE BEAST IS UNLEASHED!!
Derrick Lewis in under a round to close out 2021! #UFCVegas45 pic.twitter.com/c3cffl7IBC
— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) December 19, 2021
This was a pretty significant leap in competition for Chris, who recently left the Philly police department to focus on fighting. He was 4-0 in the UFC, and jumped all the way up to #7 in the rankings, but Lewis is a top-five opponent who twice fought for the heavyweight belt and set the UFC knockout record with this win. He’s really damn good.
Rough one for Daukaus, but a great test. I wouldn’t mind seeing him fight somebody like Tom Aspinall or Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and then with a win he gets another shot at a top five guy in Curtis Blaydes or Alex Volkov. I still think a police vs. firefighters matchup with former champ Stipe Miocic would be really fun, but Chris has to earn that fight now.
