Cormier, Lewis headline UFC 230

NEW YORK — Sure, the heavyweight championship is on the line tonight at UFC 230. But for Daniel Cormier and challenger Derrick Lewis, their biggest beef is over chicken.

Their chicken challenge goes back to July when the fighters shared the dais after they both fought on the same pay-per-view card. Cormier was feeling great after he flattened Stipe Miocic and won the heavyweight crown. Lewis also won and continued his ascent into contention.

The fighters joked for a while before Lewis could finally find a reason to dislike Cormier: “He disrespected that Popeye’s chicken on a commercial a few years ago .” A shirtless Cormier had starred in a parody video of “All About That Bass,” and danced with drumsticks out of a Popeye’s box. Lewis mimicked Cormier’s moves from the video at the news conference and both fighters erupted into laughter.

This kind of hype wasn’t exactly brimming with the nastiness of Conor McGregor throwing a hand truck at a bus to get at his foe.

But Lewis (21-5) showed he’s no chicken when comes to accepting title fights on short notice: He’s fighting Cormier for the belt at Madison Square Garden just one month after knockout win at UFC 229.

Cormier (21-1, 1 no-contest) fights for now as both the UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champ, though his days as a dual champion are numbered no matter the outcome against Lewis. Cormier will be stripped of his light heavyweight title and the 205-pound crown will go to the winner of the Jon Jones-Alexander Gustafsson bout at UFC 232 on Dec. 29 in Las Vegas, Nev.