Derrick Lewis thinks he’d have a better chance of beating heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall than his previous two bids at UFC gold against Daniel Cormier and Ciryl Gane.
Lewis (28-12 MMA, 19-10 UFC), who headlines Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 70 card against Tallison Teixeira (8-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville (ESPN, ESPN+), is one of the few top-10 heavyweights in the promotion who has yet to share the octagon with Aspinall.
After Jon Jones retired from MMA and Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) was promoted from interim to undisputed champ, the Brit made it known he wants to beat everyone with a ranking next to their name whom he hasn’t faced yet. Lewis, the all-time UFC heavyweight knockout record holder, is one of them, and he welcomes the opportunity.
“I stand up right there with him,” Lewis told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “That’d be good to fight him before everything is said and done with. I have a couple fights left on my contract, and I would love to finish out my contract. That would be great if I can. It’d be good. Let him know I need to fight Tom Aspinall for the belt.”
Lewis, 40, has no issues admitting his previous UFC title fights were not ideal. He fought Cormier at UFC 230 in November 2018 off a less than one-month turnaround and was submitted in the second round, then was TKO’d by Gane in an interim title bout at UFC 265 in August 2021, another fight with condensed preparation.
There’s hope from Lewis that the third time would be the charm, especially if he got an appropriate training camp for Aspinall, whom he thinks he matches up better with than Cormier or Gane.
“I haven’t really fought for the belt,” Lewis said. “They tried to give me a title fight when it was Stipe (Miocic), and I wasn’t expecting the title fight because I had a knee injury, and I ended up fighting DC’s big ass on short notice, then they tried to give me an interim title fight with Gane. I haven’t really fought for the title with a proper buildup for a title fight, and that time to train and everything like that mentally.
“I believe (Aspinall is a good matchup),” Lewis said. “(Knocking him out) is all I could do. What do you think I’m going to do, tap him out with a submission or something? I’m just looking to knock guys out. Every punch I’m throwing, I’m looking to knock their head off. I’m not trying to waste anything.”
