A version of Derrick Lewis’ celebration from UFC 229 in 2018 has surfaced again.
After his main-event knockout win against Rodrigo Nascimento on Saturday at UFC St. Louis, Lewis ripped his shorts off, waved them around while jogging around the octagon, mooned fans in the audience and — at some point during this wild sequence — removed his cup and tossed it toward the crowd.
The reporter who recovered the cup then asked Dana White to sign it during a press conference, too.
“I appreciate St. Louis for letting me show my naked ass tonight,” Lewis said in his interview, according to Yahoo! Sports.
It all started when the heavyweight defeated Nascimento 49 seconds into the third round, landing a series of punches — including a handful of jabs with his right hand after Nascimento crumbled to the floor — to secure his 15th knockout.
Then, Lewis, 39, removed his shorts, flapped them in the direction of Nascimento and jogged around the octagon while waving them.
He also turned his back to fans and pulled down the back part of his shorts for a second or two, while eventually removing his cup while lying on the ground, taking it over to the edge of the octagon and tossing it into the crowd.
Saturday night. Screengrab via X/@ufc
night. Screengrab via X/@ufc
“I couldn’t let no taxicab driver from Brazil beat me,” Lewis said during his post-fight interview in the Enterprise Center’s octagon, while later adding that he feels he’s still in the prime of his career. “It was my first time ever hearing of that guy.”
Later, at his press conference, the reporter who caught the cup said the cup “doesn’t smell bad at all” before asking a question about the event occurring in St. Louis.
The reporter also asked White to sign it — with the UFC president laughing and saying that “I would prefer not to,” before begrudgingly adding a “sure” seconds later in their exchange.
Earlier in his career, Lewis had unveiled a similar celebration, taking off his shorts off before his post-fight interview in October 2018 following a knockout at UFC 229.
“You can’t take everything so serious,” Lewis told The Post’s Scott Fontana in 2021. “Life is already serious as it is.”
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