Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier admits he took a short-notice fight against Derrick Lewis, as opposed to Stipe Miocic, due to “Black Beast’s” lack of cardio.
In short: Miocic is the tougher fight to take at the drop of a hat.
While the “champ-champ” knows it’s a mistake to overlook a a hard-hitter like Lewis, Derrick still wants to warn “DC” to no overlook him ahead of their 265-pound title fight at UFC 230 on Nov. 3, 2018 in New York N.Y.
“I believe he’s thinking this is going to be an easy fight for himself,” Lewis said during a media scrum via MMA Junkie. “Go ahead and think that. It’s crazy I even made it this far without he training I put in before each and every fight. I’m serious, I don’t stay in the gym each day like my opponents. I spend probably 30 minutes (training), five minutes sitting and five minutes on my phone posting memes and stuff,” he added.
Indeed, Derrick’s Instagram page is stuff of legends.
Daniel hasn’t been shy in stating he isn’t exactly 100-percent going into the fight, which prompted some concern from New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC). Cormier’s hand injury doesn’t impress Derrick much, anyway, saying he usually goes into his fights at less than full strength.
“I go into every fight with a bad back and overweight and a damn-near diabetic. It doesn’t matter to me that he’s coming into a fight with just a bad hand. That’s good for him, then.” That said, Lewis revealed he passed all of his medical and is all good to take on Cormier.
“As long as I’m 100 percent, I’m in good shape. I don’t care what he’s going to do or what he thinks he can do,” Lewis said. “I’m just going to worry about what I can do. … If you don’t take me serious, it’s a mistake. I want him to take me serious, I don’t want no excuses or nothing like that. I can’t wait for that fight.”
Lewis has long maintained he isn’t in the the sport to collect belts, preferring to simply making as much coin as possible. But when the opportunity arose to face Cormier shortly after knocking out Alexander Volkov, he couldn’t say no.
“It’s just one (opportunity) that I can’t pass up because I know there’s a lot of guys in this division that probably deserve a shot more than I’m getting,” Lewis said. “I probably don’t deserve a shot more than Stipe, should have probably got the shot. But, ain’t no telling when the next time I’m going to get this opportunity, so I had to jump on it anyway.”
It doesn’t hurt that he’ll be getting paid well for his services.