Derrick Lewis admits that Stipe Miocic should have got title shot at UFC 230

It has been a whirlwind couple of days for Derrick Lewis...

The "Black Beast" competed at UFC 229 in a barn burner of a fight with Alexander Volkov. Lewis found himself behind on the scorecards for the vast majority of the fight after getting hurt by the Russian on a few occasions. However, he showed true heart and determination to come back from the brink and knock Volkov out cold with only 11 seconds of the fight remaining. https://twitter.com/ufc/status/1048774924402212864 Immediately following the fight, Lewis gave a memorable interview with Joe Rogan where he admitted to have taken off his fight shorts because "his balls was hot". https://twitter.com/ufc/status/1049395884809629701 His win and subsequent interview was so memorable that Lewis gained over half a million Instagram followers as a result. Social media followers is one thing, but a title shot is on a totally other level, and that's what the "Black Beast" has been awarded with after his win over Volkov. He now gets a crack at heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier at UFC 230 in Madison Square Garden. https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1049784561809408000 Since the announcement of the fight, Lewis spoke with TMZ and confirmed that he doesn't believe he is yet ready for a crack at the title, citing (in typical Lewis fashion) that he can barely go three rounds, never mind five.

"Yeah they did, but I really don’t think I’m ready for the title shot, that’s 5-rounds and shit, I can barely go 3-rounds. "I used to train 30-minutes a day whenever I trained, this camp I trained for an hour so I like better get my hours up in training."

Lewis then admitted that he felt former champion Stipe Miocic deserved the rematch with "DC" ahead of him getting a title shot.

"I don’t know why they don’t want to give it to Stipe. It’d been great for them to give it to Stipe than to me, but I appreciate them giving me the shot. "I really believe that Stipe really deserves the shot, seeing as how he was the champion for a while, he defended that many times, and I guess dominant for a while. "I don’t know why they gave it to me before they gave it to Stipe. Everyone else, whenever they lost their belt, they got a shot to win it back. I don’t know why they didn’t give it to Stipe, unless he wanted some time off."

It was a moment of complete honesty from Lewis, but you can't help but feel he is seeling himself a bit short considering that his last two wins have come against Francis Ngannou (albeit a boring fight) who challeneged Stipe for the belt, and Volkov who is a former Bellator world champion. It will be a tough fight for Lewis none the less coming up against possible the pound-for-pound best fighter on the planet in Daniel Cormier.

---