Those hoping to see a better performance from ‘Black Beast’ will be happy to hear he’s coming into St. Louis way healthier than he was in Sao Paulo.
Derrick Lewis comes into his St. Louis main event against Rodrigo Nascimento on a 1-3 skid over the past two years, but “The Black Beast” believes his recent record doesn’t reflect the improvements he’s made in his training and fitness.
“I’m feeling great right now,” Lewis reiterated during media day interviews. “I actually really feel like this is my prime. Whenever I was in my twenties, early thirties or whatever, I didn’t feel as good. And now I’m feeling fantastic right now.”
This was similar to what Lewis said coming into his UFC Sao Paulo main event against Jailton Almeida, a plodding five round decision that did nothing for either fighter’s reputation. But Lewis was battling a lot of issues coming into that fight that he’s willing to share with us now.
“I came in great shape for that fight,” he said. “The only thing that was bothering me, I tore both of my shoulders the week before the fight. Like after I signed. I said, ‘Yeah, I accept the fight.’ Then a few days later, I tore both my shoulders doing stupid jiu jitsu drills, my rotator cuffs from on both sides. So I couldn’t really push off or throw a punch. And even throwing an uppercut hurt it.”
“And the week of the fight, that Monday, I had two ear infections in my left ear and my right ear at the same time and I didn’t get over that until, like, three weeks after the fight.”
Derrick prefers to concentrate on the positive from that fight: competing for twenty five minutes without running out of steam.
“It was a bad performance but I was I was feeling great, you know?” Lewis concluded. “I was feeling great. I was surprised for myself that I even went five rounds. I was comfortable in there, but it was just that I didn’t have any strength in my shoulders.”
If things work out against Nascimento in St. Louis, Lewis wouldn’t mind a redo against Almeida.
“I would love a rematch with Almeida [after I] get through this fight right here,” he said. “I’m not looking past my guy, nothing like that. Get through this fight right here, I would like Almeida again for sure. This time in in the US, I don’t wanna go back to over there [to Brazil] no more.”
And no more 25 minute fights.
“I wanna get it over with quick,” he declared. “I’m in shape. I’m actually damn sure I’m in shape to go five rounds. But I wanna finish this guy in the first for sure. I like finishing the fights in the first. “Like the one I did in Utah, it was so good and I didn’t have to worry about even breathing that fight.”
That was Lewis’ 30 second flying knee knockout of Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC 291.
“It was so so quick,” he said, smiling at the memory. “I would love something like that again.”