Derrick Lewis signs eight-fight deal with UFC as free agency is short-lived

Derrick Lewis will remain a UFC heavyweight.

At UFC 291, Lewis returned to the win column with a 33-second TKO win over Marcos Rogerio de Lima. He immediately landed a flying knee that dropped the Brazilian and then finished him off with ground-and-pound shots.

After the win, Lewis announced he was a free agent but said he wanted to remain a UFC fighter.

“I’m hoping to stay here in the UFC,” Lewis said. “I like it here. I like the staff. … Everybody is cool here except for the media – y’all d*ckheads. F*ck all y’all, really. But go ahead – next question,” Lewis said after UFC 291.

Part of the reason why Derrick Lewis wanted to remain a UFC fighter is due to the fact he believes he still has another title run left in him.

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“I believe I do (have another title run),” Lewis said. “It’s just so crazy, so frustrating, me losing to the guys that I lost to. There’s no way in hell I should’ve lost to those guys. That was another reason why I wanted to train my ass off for this fight because now I have a lot of guys calling me out and I showed (what happens). The last guy that called me out was Curtis Blaydes, and you know what happened to that.”

Now, after the Power Slap event on Wednesday, UFC president Dana White told the media that Derrick Lewis has signed an extension. The Mac Life’s Oscar Willis revealed it was for eight fights.

“Listen, I love Derrick,” White said about Derrick Lewis after Power Slap. “Personally, and professionally, (I) love the guy. So yes.”

Derrick Lewis (27-11 and one No Contest) snapped his three-fight losing skid with the win over de Lima. Prior to that, he suffered a submission loss to Serghei Spivac, a TKO loss to Sergei Pavlovich, and a KO loss to Tai Tuivasa. Lewis has fought for the UFC title once and the interim belt another time but lost both fights. In his career, he holds notable wins over Francis Ngannou, Curtis Blaydes, Roy Nelson, and Alexander Volkov among others.