UFC President Dana White made his feelings known about the Derrick Lewis – Francis Ngannou fight.
As seen in the co-main event of Saturday’s (July 7, 2018) UFC 226 pay-per-view event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lewis was able to pick up a unanimous decision win over the former title contender.
Once this fight was made, the expectation was this fight would be exciting and someone getting knocked out in the first-round. Obviously, that didn’t happen and it was the worst fight on the card.
Ngannou was attempting to build off his latest lost coming into this fight. As seen at the UFC 220 PPV (pay-per-view) event at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on pay-per-view, UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic successfully retained his title in the main event by scoring a dominant decision win over the title contender.
Ngannou was gassed after the first round and lost in a lopsided fashion. Following the fight, Ngannou made it known that this fight was a major learning experience for him.
Following this pay-per-view event, White gave his honest take on this fight and thought it was a bad fight.
“The card was so bad, we had one bad fight – what are you going to do?” White said at the post-fight press conference at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (transcript courtesy of MMAJunkie).
“Big time,” White said. “I can tell you that his ego absolutely ran did run away with him. The minute that happens to you in the fight game, you start to fall apart. I had some personal encounters with him, as did other people in the organization, and this guy’s ego was so out of control. Ego is what hurt Francis Ngannou,” White concluded.
“He’s a fun guy – he’s funny,” White said of Lewis. “When he gets in there and throws, the fights are exciting. But he always has problems with his back. And that’s going to be a problem. You don’t want to go in there with a bad back against (Daniel) Cormier. But I like him, and I don’t think his stock dropped at all.
“Tonight is the last time he was in a boring fight. The card was so good, people will forget about that. And the heavyweight championship was so good, it was immediately erased from people’s memories.”
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