Derrick Lewis won his 2nd straight fight at UFC 247 over the weekend defeating Ilir Latifi by unanimous decision.
“The Black Beast” returned to his hometown of Houston, Texas for the 1st time in more than 4 years to secure a victory which will get him back in the title mix. In the post fight interviews Lewis said he would remain a backup for the UFC Columbus headliner scheduled to take place on March 28th between Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and Francis Ngannou. Lewis stated that he is healthy and and nothing wrong with him.
Contrary to what Lewis said in the UFC 247 post conference, he actually is dealing with a health issue. A very serious issue. In a interview with ESPN he opened up about a life or death health issue.
“My coach wanted me to get something checked out that has been hindering my training. They wanted me to keep it down low.”
“The UFC doctors know what it is and the doctors here in Houston know what it is. It’s just something I need to get addressed. It’s something life or death threatening serious.”
Lewis had been suffering with a torn ACL for 4 years before he finally got a surgery in early 2019. Lewis returned to the octagon later in 2019 UFC 244 in November with a win over Blagoy Ivanov. Lewis stated that his doctor told him he shouldn’t have taken the UFC 247 fight.
“I’ll get it checked out and I can really get my training going. I couldn’t do much. I did enough to go 15 minutes and fight the way I did.”
” My wife worries but I’m not.”
Lewis did not disclose details about the exact issue but should know more details in the next week or two.