Derrick Lewis has given his honest take about his fight with Francis Ngannou.
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.
Following the fight, Lewis spoke with the media members who attended the event and admitted that it was a terrible performance.
Lewis has won eight of his last nine fights and coming into this fight, he thought that he was close to a title shot if he was able to beat Ngannou. However, with a lackluster performance, those hopes are gone.
”It was a terrible performance,” Lewis said (transcript courtesy of MMAMania). “I know I say that a lot, but it was a real bad performance. I know for sure I don’t deserve a title shot. I believe it hurt me more than it helped me. Even though I got the win, I believe it probably set me about two fights back.”
”We knew he really wanted to counter me coming in with my right hand, because I’m real vulnerable when I come in with my right hand,” he said. “I lean over whenever I throw it and I know he wanted to catch me coming in and hit me with an uppercut, left hook … The gameplan was to take his ass down, and I already told my coach I dunno how to take down, I dunno how to do takedowns.”
”My ass needs to sit down somewhere and learn some more technique or something. I don’t deserve to call anyone out with a performance like that. I don’t care if he’s the number one contender, I believe I shouldn’t be fighting no one really, after a performance like that.”
Lewis brought up the fact that he has some issues with his back and it started to seize up during the fight. The last time that this happened, he as in New Zealand against Mark Hunt, and Hunt KO’d Lewis in the fourth round after Lewis found himself unable to move.
”For sure my back was killing me,” Lewis said. “All I wanted to do was sit down and stay on that bench.”
”My wife, she really wants me to take care of my back before I even accept any type of fight, but it’s just the dog in me that always wants to fight, no matter what. But yeah, I know I need to take it more serious, and the doctors are telling me I need to lose at least 25 pounds and I need to stretch a lot more than I have been to try and help my back out.”
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