ORLANDO – Derrick Lewis only needed one slip-up by Jack May to give him the opening he needed to seize control of a seesaw grappling battle and settle the matter with big punches from the top, resulting a TKO victory at 4:23 of Round 1.

The heavyweight bout opened up the preliminary card of today’s UFC on FOX 11 event at Amway Center in Orlando, Fla. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of additional prelims on FOX Sports 1 and a main card on FOX.

The two big men wasted little time getting to work in this one. Lewis got the takedown that brought the action to the floor early on, but he found it difficult to stay on top of May, who soon reversed him and notched an eventual takedown of his own before transition to full mount.

Lewis stayed active, however, and after a later takedown attempt by May succeeded only in pulling Lewis on top of him, Lewis opened up with vicious strikes from the top that left May facedown on the floor, forcing referee John McCarthy to call a stop to the action.

McCarthy told the UFC broadcast team that May blew out his knee in one of the ground transitions right before Lewis started raining down the fight-ending punches. He had to be helped from the cage and to the backstage area following the fight.

“This win means the world to me,” Lewis said. “To come all this way from where I was a few years ago in my life is amazing. I’ve surrounded myself with the right people and the right gym and everything is falling into place. I wasn’t nervous until I heard Bruce Buffer call my name. That was the sign that I had finally made it.”

Lewis (10-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) has now won four straight, including this win in his UFC debut. May (7-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) suffers his first career loss.

Up-to-the-minute UFC on FOX 11 results include:

Derrick Lewis def. Jack May via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:23

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 11, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

John Morgan and Matt Erickson contributed to this report on-site in Orlando.