Derrick
Lewis took sole possession of the all-time UFC knockout record
on Saturday night, but he wasn’t overly impressed with the
achievement.
“It means something, I guess, because of all the greats that were
here before me,” Lewis said at the
UFC Fight Night 199 press conference on Saturday night. “But
really it doesn’t change anything, because there’s still a lot of
other guys that are active and have been doing pretty good as
well.
“I preferred to get the win in Houston [at UFC 265] than here in
the APEX, so it didn’t really erase anything. I’m still going to be
thinking about [the Ciryl Gane
loss] late at night.”
Lewis ended Chris
Daukaus’ five-bout promotional winning streak in resounding
fashion, as he knocked out the Philadelphia-based police officer
with power punches 3:36 into the opening round of their heavyweight
headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It was an impressive
bounceback effort from “The Black Beast,” who fell to Gane in an
interim title bout at UFC 265 this past August.
“If you look at the amount of times that he’s been here and the
records that he’s broken, it’s impressive,” UFC presidend Dana
White said. “He looked good tonight. You could see he was waiting.
He was timing those shots and he was ready. He looks pretty lean
for Derrick, too. He got in good shape. He said that last fight
[against Gane] pissed him off and he wanted to make up for it
tonight, and he did.”
Lewis has compiled an impressive list of victims among his 13 UFC
knockouts, finishing the likes of Curtis
Blaydes, Alexey
Oleynik, Alexander
Volkov, Marcin
Tybura, Travis
Browne and Gabriel
Gonzaga inside the Octagon. One KO stands out above the rest,
however.
“I like the Volkov knockout [at UFC 229],” Lewis said. “That was
pretty clutch because I was getting my cheeks clapped that whole
fight, and it was good that I came in the last round — and it was a
Russian guy, so it was an American going against a Russian, and I
love all the Rocky movies. So basically that’s how Rocky used to
fight, where he’d get whooped — damn near the whole fight he’d get
whooped — then the music starts playing, then his wife starts
screaming, then he’d get the knockout. So basically that’s how it
was, and it was just perfect.”
Lewis will be an interested observer when Gane squares off against
Francis
Ngannou in a heavyweight unification title bout at UFC 270 on
Jan. 22. As far as the two main event competitors go, the Houston
native has a decidely different perspective on each man.
“Ciryl, I guess he’s a good dude. He’s a likable guy,” Lewis said.
“I couldn’t find anything wrong with him. Personality-wise, outside
of fighting, he seemed like a pretty cool dude. Ngannou, on the
other hand, he can kiss my ass. He seems like a d—khead 24/7, so
f—k him.”
There is the possibility that the latest surge in COVID-19 cases
could provide difficulties for the promotion when it comes to
bringing fighters into the country from overseas. That means Lewis
could be on deck if for some reason Gane is unable to fight at UFC
270.
“We have tons of concerns going into the end of this year with
what’s going on right now,” White said. “Here we are again with
college football, NBA, NFL — this guys are all canceling games and
shutting down, so what does that mean about travel restrictions and
all this stuff? We smoked right through hopefully what’s the worst
of it in 2020.
“I’m not worried about it. We’ll figure it out. Tell [Derrick] to
keep his phone on.”
For his part, Lewis isn’t too keen on the possibility of another
five-round fight, but the financial rewards for a championship bout
might be too much to resist.
“We’ll see, man. I guess,” Lewis said. “Damn. I just told y’all I
don’t want anymore five rounds, but OK, we’ll see. I want the
money. We’ll see. I guess I’ll be ready, somewhat.”