Derrick Lewis glad Alistair Overeem got ‘worked,’ explains boxer beatdown at gym
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
For many MMA vets, it was hard not to feel bad for UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem when a last-second punch from Jairzinho Rozenstruik laid him out.
One person not broken up about it? Derrick Lewis. “The Black Beast” was actually tickled when he saw a highlight of the UFC on ESPN 7 headliner.
”I’m glad that Overeem got his ass worked,” Lewis told “UFC Unfiltered.”
That shade doesn’t come out of nowhere. Overeem had issued a callout to Lewis after his improbable knockout win at UFC 229, adding he didn’t think much of the skills on display from the 34-year-old Houston resident. The pair were then targeted to meet at the start of January 2019, but the bout never materialized.
Lewis hasn’t forgotten. But now that he’s scheduled to face former light heavyweight Ilir Latifi at UFC 247, he’s moving on with his career.
”He’s probably going to be the smallest heavyweight I’ve fought in a long time,” Lewis said of Latifi. “But he’s a very explosive guy. He’s a great wrestler, so I’ve still got to be prepared for anywhere the fight goes.”
One area where Lewis seems more dangerous than ever is his standup work. He recently went viral when he beat down a boxer that reportedly talked smack in the gym.
According to Lewis, the boxer had been training for two weeks “running his mouth, wanting to fight and spar everyone, and just being disrespectful.” One day, he and his coach walked in, and the boxer started in on them.
Here’s how that conversation went.
Boxer: Who’s this right here?
Coach: That’s “The Black Beast” right there.
Boxer: Man, I think I can knock him out.
Lewis: Oh yeah? Alright. Well, get this man some gloves.
The video shows what happened next.
When a boxers said he will knock me out because I’m a mma fighter pic.twitter.com/EjSeudMeQM
— Derrick Lewis (@Thebeast_ufc) December 19, 2019
”In less than a minute, I tried to murder his ass,” Lewis said.
But getting underestimated is something Lewis is used to, whether it’s by world-class fighters or random people in the gym. It’s something he uses to his advantage. Right when people think he’s done, he explodes.
And with less bulk to carry around, courtesy of a recent focus on cardio and nutrition, the lighter Lewis said he’s twice as dangerous.
”It’s something I try to do to trick my opponents, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to get my weight down, so I could be like that more often, instead of every now and then,” he said.
