UFC Heavyweight contender, Derrick Lewis, talked to TheMacLife ahead of his fight against Curtis Blaydes at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Lewis. They are set to fight on Saturday, February 20.
The reporter asked Lewis about his frustration after their first fight got canceled. Derrick responded by saying, “It was pretty frustrating, but I told everyone else that I was really concerned for Curtis. Hopefully, everything was good with him. Like I said, I didn’t want him to be in ICU for COVID; I want him to be in ICU because of me.”
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This resulted in laughter around the room, which is a standard detail in every Derrick Lewis interview. “That’s how I look at every fight. I want to put some pain on you, but I don’t want to kill you,” Lewis said.
The reporter from TheMacLife also told Lewis that Curtis wanted to apologize to him for the first fight being canceled, and Lewis responded with a smile and said, “Appreciate it, thank you.”
The first fight was supposed to take place at UFC Vegas 15 on November 28, 2020. The cancellation came at a worrying time when a lot of UFC fighters were being struck by COVID-19.
Derrick Lewis wants a piece of Alistair Overeem; he wants to “clap them cheeks”
While he is indeed fighting Curtis Blaydes this weekend, the interview’s primary focus was his callout to Alistair Overeem. Derrick said that he wanted to fight Alistair Overeem before the end of 2020, but that didn’t happen. He said that Overeem talked a lot of smack and added that he never trash-talked about someone unless they trash-talked about him first.
Lewis asked Overeem not to retire and said, “I really want a piece of that and clap them cheeks. No homo.” It was another classic Derrick Lewis line that entailed some more laughter from the room.
Imago
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – AUGUST 08: (R-L) Derrick Lewis punches Aleksei Oleinik of Russia in their heavyweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on August 08, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
Keeping all the jokes aside, Lewis looks like a serious contender for the heavyweight crown after he beat Aleksei Oleinik via knockout in the second round. Oleinik had a tight choke on Lewis in the wee moments of the first round, but Lewis hung on.
However, Blaydes is no pushover, and he’s on a four-fight win streak with wins over guys like Alexander Volkov and Junior dos Santos. This fight can be a no. 1 contender’s fight with Francis Ngannou challenging the champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 260. Expect some fireworks from this matchup, as it’s one of the best that the UFC heavyweight division has to offer.
Do you think Alistair Overeem will fight Derrick Lewis?
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