After a perfectly-timed uppercut sent Curtis
Blaydes tumbling to the canvas like a sack of potatoes,
Derrick
Lewis punctuated his
UFC Fight Night 185 victory with a little something extra.
With Blaydes already unconscious, “The Black Beast” dove in to land
two brutal shots of ground-and-pound in a follow-up reminiscient of
what Dan
Henderson did to Michael
Bisping at UFC 100 in July 2009. It was also a reminder of just
how brutal this sport can be.
When asked about the final two punches, Lewis defended his actions
in typical humorous fashion with a WWE reference, while also
pointing out that it’s the referee’s job to say when the fight is
over.
“I can’t just turn the switch off just like that,” Lewis said at
Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Some fighters can do that,
but I can’t do it. I have to wait until the referee pulled me off
because you never know what could happen. Anything could happen. He
could’ve turned into the Undertaker and stood straight up and eat
all those shots. You never know. You go until the referee says,
‘Chill out.’”
Heading into Saturday night, Lewis was a significant underdog
against Blaydes, who appeared to be on the path to title contention
in the UFC’s heavyweight division. Blaydes fought well in the
opening round, outlanding his opponent in a frame that was
contested entirely on the feet. Of course, that’s not Blaydes’
bread and butter. The Elevation Fight Team product is the all-time
heavyweight leader in takedowns and was coming off a bout in which
he grounded Alexander
Volkov a whopping 14 times.
“At the end of the first round I’m like, ‘He’s messing up, he’s
messing up. That’s what I was saying in my head,” Lewis said. “His
coach was trying to pump his head up, ‘Good, good. You’re doing
good.’ I’m like, ‘All right, keep playing that game.’ That’s what I
was saying to myself. The second round came, and I knew he was
going to try to come out and stand up a little bit, and then he was
trying to shoot. So I just had to be patient.”
As it turned out, Lewis had the perfect counter to Blaydes’ level
change in the second stanza. It was a product of a central focus
throughout his camp.
“All I was waiting on was just for him to shoot. Was just waiting
for him to shoot and nothing else,” Lewis said. “We knew it was
coming .. that’s what we’ve been drilling all month. Twelve weeks,
really. Trying to get prepared for that guy.”
Lewis, who is now tied with Vitor
Belfort for the most knockouts in promotion history with 12, is
currently on a four-bout winning streak and looks to be one of the
top contenders in his weight class. However, he isn’t necessarily
interested in a heavyweight title shot. Instead, Lewis is angling
for a showdown with Alistair
Overeem, who is coming off a lopsided second-round TKO loss to
Alexander
Volkov on Feb. 6.
“I don’t care [about his loss] … It’d be cool just to fight him,
because he’s a so-called legend,” Lewis said. “So it’d be cool to
fight somebody like that. And also, he’s been talking trash. He’s
been saying his teammate, Curtis, could handle this lightweight.
We’ve been trying to fight him for years, and he turned down the
fight four times already.”
In his ideal scenario, Lewis wouldn’t face Overeem at the top of a
UFC card. The Houston native would much rather prepare for a
three-round fight than a five-round fight.
“I don’t need no main event,” he said. “I don’t deserve no main
event. I don’t want to go five rounds. I hate five rounds. My body
is like, ‘Man, keep f—-ing around, we’re going to retire your ass.’
But I hate five rounds.”