Derrick Lewis vs. Rodrigo Nascimento announced as UFC St. Louis headliner

UFC’s return to St. Louis has a heavyweight main event.

The promotion announced on Saturday that Derrick Lewis is set to face Rodrigo Nascimento in the main event of UFC St. Louis, which takes place May 11 at the Enterprise Center.

Lewis (27-12, 1 NC) enters the bout having dropped four of his past five bouts. He’ll look to bounce back from a lopsided decision loss to Jailton Almeida suffered at UFC Sao Paulo in November.

Prior to that, “The Black Beast” delivered one of 2023’s wildest highlight-reel finishes when he stopped Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC 291 this past July in Salt Lake City.

Nascimento (11-1, 1 NC) competes in his first UFC main event after earning three straight decision wins — split decision nods over Tanner Boser and Ilir Latifi, plus a unanimous decision over Don’Tale Mayes in his most recent outing this past November.

The 31-year-old holds a 4-1 UFC record with 1 no-contest in his six-fight promotional run.