Derrick Lewis wants to stay active following KO of Curtis Blaydes: “I know my window of time is closing to make money”
Heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis is looking to stay active following his sensational knockout victory over Curtis Blaydes at UFC Vegas 19.
Lewis (25-7 MMA) squared off with Blaydes (14-3 MMA) on February 20 in a highly anticipated heavyweight bout. The result was a knockout victory for ‘The Black Beast’, who was able to put ‘Razor’ to sleep early in the second round after landing a nasty uppercut.
The emphatic victory marked Derrick Lewis’ fourth in a row, as he had previously wins over Aleksei Oleinik, Ilir Latifi and Blagoy Ivanov.
Now back in title contention, Lewis is looking to stay busy rather than wait around for a potential second crack at UFC gold.
“For me, I want to stay active. I don’t want to be waiting around to fight anyone, because I’m not young like I used to (be). So I don’t want to wait around and fight for the title or wait around to fight a certain opponent,” Derrick Lewis explained to Joe Rogan (via MMAJunkie). “I want to fight anyone who is ready. I know my window of time is closing to make money. I don’t have that much time left to make money, so I don’t want to just sit around.”
With that said, Derrick Lewis appears open to fighting undefeated heavyweight Ciryl Gane next if the UFC wants to go that direction.
“It all depends,” Lewis said. “I don’t know how the UFC wants to build up that Ciryl Gane guy or if they want to get him in there in the mix right away. I started getting tagged in the fight (clips on social media), because they said (Gane vs. Rozenstruik) still wasn’t worse than me and Francis. I’m like, ‘Damn. OK. Sh*t.’”
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Ciryl Gane Derrick Lewis UFC