Derrick Lewis gets personal with Travis Browne, calls for top 5 opponent

Sunday in Halifax, streaking UFC heavyweight Derrick Lewis will step into the Octagon with Travis Browne, who will be looking to bounce back from his current 2-fight skid. After controversially defeating Matt Mitrione in early January in a fight which saw Mitrione sustain one of the worst eye injuries in the history of MMA. Following that, Browne dropped a UFC 200 TKO loss to Cain Velasquez, which was followed by a unanimous decision loss to Fabricio Werdum at UFC 203.

Ahead of his upcoming fight with Browne, Lewis spoke to MMAJunkie to explain why while he feels Travis Browne is guilty of putting his hands on his ex-girlfriend, he isn’t looking to play hero:

“I believe it. I believe he did put his hands on his (ex-girlfriend). But he’s looking for some motivation. I can look at that as a type of motivation as well. At the end of the day I’m not fighting to be Superman or anything like that, going like Captain Save-A-You-Know-What. I’m just really doing it for the money. I’m not really going out there trying to save these women.”

“I wanted to fight Travis because he’s one of the top heavyweights in the division,” Lewis said. “It’s a tough fight for me, but I still wanted that challenge. I believe fighting a top-10 guy like this is just going to bring a better fighter out of myself.””

Currently ranked at number 8 on the UFC’s official rankings, Lewis could very well find himself in the top 5 of the heavyweight division with a win on Sunday. With that being said, he already has his sights set on potential opponents:

“(Next I want) Mark Hunt, (Alistair) Overeem – everyone in the top 10, top five,” Lewis said. “Whatever. Give me the belt after this. That’s my plan. These guys getting popped left and right with steroids and anal beads. We’ll see what happens.”

on 1/17/2017.