A heavyweight clash pitting Derrick
Lewis against Sergei
Pavlovich is in the works for an Ultimate Fighting Championship
card on July 30.
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ESPN was first to report the booking. The event, which is
expected to be UFC 277, does not yet have a location or venue. The
card is also expected to include a middleweight showdown between
Sean
Strickland and Alex
Pereira.
Lewis last appeared at UFC 271, where he suffered a second-round
knockout loss to Tai Tuivasa
on Feb. 12 in Houston. “The Black Beast” is the UFC’s all-time
knockout leader and a two-time heavyweight title challenger, coming
up short against Daniel
Cormier for the undisputed belt at UFC 230 and losing to
Ciryl
Gane for the interim strap at UFC 265. Lewis owns wins against
the likes of Curtis
Blaydes, Alexey
Oleynik, Alexander
Volkov, Francis
Ngannou, Marcin
Tybura, Travis
Browne and Roy Nelson,
to name a few.
Pavlovich has won three straight in the Octagon after falling to
Alistair
Overeem in his promotional debut at UFC Fight Night 141. Since
then, the 29-year-old Russian has authored successive first-round
KO/TKO victories against Marcelo
Golm, Maurice
Greene and Shamil
Abdurakhimov. Pavolvich has won 15 of his 16 professional
appearances, 12 via KO or TKO.