BOO! UFC Announces Another Terrible Heavyweight Main Event

The standards for a UFC main event are lower (and heavier) than ever.

Earlier on Saturday (March 30, 2024), UFC announced Derrick Lewis vs. Rodrigo Nascimento as the main event of UFC St. Louis, which will take place on May 11, 2024, at the Enterprise Center, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Lewis is the most prolific knockout artist in UFC history. Unfortunately, he’s also lost four of his last five fights, so while “The Black Beast” remains a fan favorite, he’s not really in a great position to be main event. In addition, Rodrigo Nascimento is barely a ranked fighter at No. 15. He’s won three in a row to earn this step up in competition, but two of those victories were split-decisions, and “Yogi Bear” has never really seemed the part of future contender.

It’s just not a great main event by any metric, but it’s especially bad to pin on a live crowd! This has disappointing UFC Apex main event written all over it, yet St. Louis fans are being asked to fork over their hard-earned cash. Fight fans online are already pissed, and they didn’t wait to make their voices heard.

Here’s a sample of reactions from Twitter:

Thanks but on behalf of St. Louis we formally reject this offer, especially in this economy.

Derrick Lewis is 1-4 in his last 5 fights. Please stop giving him main events.

What is the point of terrible apex cards if we can’t get good cards in front of crowds?

Ye you’re deliberately trying to kill the sport with this type of main event

They’re using the apex to lower our standard of what a FN main event should be so when they leave we don’t complain about fights like this.

The UFC are so washed it’s insane. This is what happens when you have a monopoly over the sport.

It won’t even be the most interesting Heavyweight fight on the card.

On the bright side, the UFC St. Louis event still has time for additional match ups. Hopefully, the promotion will bolster the card with more well-known and ranked named in the coming weeks.

And hopefully the contracts will be signed prior to announcement.