Derrick Lewis drops Aleksei Oleinik with a punch at UFC Vegas 6
Derrick Lewis eyes top tier opponent after UFC Vegas 6 victory
Derrick Lewis picked up a second-round TKO win over Aleskei Oleinik last night in the main event of UFC Vegas 6. That win now puts “The Black Beast” on a three-fight winning streak and now he wants his next fight to be a steppingstone to compete once again for the UFC heavyweight championship.
“Curtis Blaydes makes sense,” Lewis said at his post-fight press conference. “(Francis) Ngnannou makes sense. (Alistair) Overeem makes sense. That’s about it. We’ll see what happens next week and see who makes sense after that match. I for sure have to get down 15-20 pounds to feel comfortable in there. Yep, then you’ll really see something scary out of me, for sure.”
While the heavyweight division still has some moving parts, which is mainly due to next weekends heavyweight trilogy between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier, Lewis believes he is right in the mix of things and rightfully so.
Last night, Oleinik had opportunities lock in a submission attempts, but Lewis showed that he’s becoming more comfortable with his ground game as he wouldn’t allow Oleinik to break his will.
“He fought just like we thought he was going to fight, Lewis said. “The submission defense by him holding my neck like that is what we practiced all week – really the last two weeks, the elbow tuck and turn into him. We (saw) him do that bulldog choke. You don’t want to get tapped on your neck like that, so I couldn’t tap.”
For Lewis’ next fight, he’ll hope that fans will be allowed back in attendance. Last night, he thought the lack of fans made it more obvious that he Oleinik had him in trouble.
“I was wishing there were crowds in the stands because I was snorting, making a funny noise while he was choking the hell out of my neck,” Lewis said. “I was like, ‘damn, I’m making too much noise. I wonder if they can hear it on TV.’ So I can’t tap like that. I know my kids watching. They would tease me forever.”
Lewis is currently ranked No. 4 in the world at heavyweight. Only Miocic, Cormier Ngannou and Blaydes are in front of him. He has never fought Miocic or Blaydes and has a lackluster win over Ngannou.
