Lewis ready for UFC 216 after wife ends retirement
Heavyweight awaits Werdum after helping in Harvey recovery
UFC heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis learned an important lesson about clearing all major decisions in life with his wife after abruptly announcing his retirement in the cage following a loss to Mark Hunt in June.
Spontaneously ending his career apparently didn’t sit well on the homefront.
“At the time I really meant it, but when I got home and talked to my wife, she used certain words that I would never say, especially in an interview,” Lewis said jokingly during Wednesday’s media day before his UFC 216 bout against former champ Fabricio Werdum on Saturday at T-mobile Arena. “She told me I’m not retiring.”
So Lewis, 32, is set to return less than four months later with a huge opportunity. He hopes to rediscover the kind of success that had his popularity and ranking soaring, as he recorded five knockouts during a six-fight winning streak before the loss to Hunt.
But the lifelong Texan had
far more to deal with during training camp than preparing for Werdum’s unique skillset
Lewis found himself in the middle of the chaos when Hurricane Harvey ravaged his hometown of Houston in late August.
For the next several days, he used his social media accounts to offer a glimpse of what was happening in the region.
Lewis posted videos of rescues in which he would get in his pickup truck and find people who needed to be saved from flood waters or pulled out of their homes or vehicles.
Several reached out through his page and shared information or locations of where their loved ones needed help.
“I’m comfortable in my life now, and if I’m in a position
to help someone, I will,” Lewis said. “Even if I have to use my last dime, I don’t care. I’ve always been that type of person.”
Lewis is seeing the same sense of community in Las Vegas as residents unite after the deadly mass shooting Sunday on the Strip.
“It was heartbreaking to see everything going on here,” Lewis said. “It drained me just hearing about it. All these tragedies just keep happening around the same time certain groups are really trying to divide everyone, whether it be over the confederate flag, or statues, or really just everything. I really believe God is just trying to sit everyone down and show everybody that we really need each other.
“We were heading to a dark place. I hope this helps us all come together.”
Lewis also is optimistic about Houston’s future despite the problems that still exist more than a month after Harvey made landfall.
“Everyone’s furniture and carpeting and sheet rock is like 10 feet high in their front yards, and it seems like it’s not going anywhere,” he said. “It’s still just there, and there are still flood waters in certain areas, too. Trash is piling up.
“I did what I could do, but I believe the first responders are doing a great job now doing what they can. There’s just a lot more to do.”
He hopes one day to have the means to do more. Lewis never has fought for titles or fame or anything besides the check, and he’s never tried to pretend it was about anything else.
“I guess there’s some type of motivation like trying to be a millionaire,” he said of his goals as a fighter. “You’ve got to be a special person to want to get inside an octagon and fight someone that didn’t do anything to hurt you.”
Either that or have a wife who won’t let you stop.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @ adamhilllvrj on Twitter.