While Sergey
Spivak’s overwhelming victory over Derrick
Lewis may have been surprising to many observers, it wasn’t to
the man himself.
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“The Polar Bear” dominated Lewis in the UFC Fight Night 218
headliner, tossing his opponent all over the Octagon before locking
in an arm-triangle choke at the 3:05 mark of Round 1. It was a
significant statement against a two-time heavyweight title
challenger.
“We were ready for everything,” Spivak said at the post-fight press
conference “Today, I showed you guys my judo style, my sambo style,
my boxing style, and in the future, I’ll show you guys more.”
Spivak transitioned seamlessly to the fight-ending choke, and that
wasn’t by accident.
“I trained a lot for this moment,” he said. “My friend Misha
Cirkunov showed me this triangle choke and we worked a lot for
this moment. I saw Derrick
Lewis doesn’t have good balance and grappling. I took the
moment.”
Spivak has won six of his last seven UFC appearances to emerge as a
new contender in the promotion’s heavyweight division. While his
post-fight callout of Jon Jones may
have been a little bit ambitious, the Moldovan is confident he
deserves a highly-ranked foe in his next outing.
“I don’t choose my opponents and I don’t think about [rankings],”
Spivak said. “The UFC needs to think about this. I just wait. Give
me a contract, I sign it, and that’s it. But we need somebody from
the Top 5, yes.”
As for Jones, Spivak will be an interested observer when the former
light heavyweight champion squares off against Ciryl Gane
for the vacant heavyweight crown at UFC 285 on March 4.
“I don’t like to [predict] fights. It’s not for me,” Spivak said.
“But I think it will be a great fight. We haven’t seen Jon Jones in a
long time – he didn’t fight for three years. But he has big
skills, good skills. He was a great champion and he’s still a great
champion, in my opinion. Ciryl Gane
is very tough, too. We’ll see what happens.”