Derrick Lewis will look for a return to winning form in the UFC when he faces Sergey Spivak in the heavyweight main event of a Fight Night at the APEX Facility in Las Vegas on the morning of Sunday 5 February 2023.
‘The Black Beast’ (26-10, 1 NC) has lost three of his last four fights, most recently going down by TKO just 55 seconds into the first round of his clash with Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 277 in July 2022.
The 37-year-old is a former interim heavyweight title contender, but needs a major upturn in form if he is to scale those heights again in what remains of his career.
“I know everybody is looking at me with one eye right now like, ‘Um, I don’t know,’ so I’m gonna go out there and show them that I’m still that guy,” said Lewis.
“It’s crazy because now I feel like while I’ve been taking my training camp serious, people aren’t taking me serious.”
He added, “I don’t know what it feels like any more,” he said in regards to having his hand raised inside the Octagon. “It’s been so long that I don’t know what it feels like any more. I’m usually fighting more often than this, so we’ll see.”
Spivak (15-3), by contrast, is chasing a third straight win and has claimed victory in five of his last six matches. He impressively stopped Augusto Sakai in the second round of his most recent fight in August 2022.
The 27-year-old ‘Polar Bear’ will be in the main event for the first time in his UFC career, but it not letting that distract him from his approach.
“Of course, you have to be a fool not to pay attention to the fact that you are the man on the marquee,” he offers, acknowledging the magnitude of being half of the headlining attraction.
“I understand this means I’m taking specific steps to get somewhere, and that I’ve kind of made it to a certain place, but it has to continue to be ‘the next fight’ and something that I have to continue to achieve, as opposed to blowing it out of proportion and making it something bigger than it is.”
The remainder of the fight card features a light heavyweight co-main pitting Jung Da-un against Devin Clark; Marcin Tybura v Blagoy Ivanov in a heavyweight clash; Choi Doo-ho against Kyle Nelson in the featherweight division; and a welterweight opener between Yusaku Kinoshita and Adam Fugitt.
UFC Fight Night: Lewis v Spivak – Main card
- Main event: Heavyweight: Derrick Lewis v Sergey Spivak
- Light heavyweight: Jung Da-un v Devin Clark
- Heavyweight: Marcin Tybura v Blagoy Ivanov
- Featherweight: Choi Doo-ho v Kyle Nelson
- Welterweight: Yusaku Kinoshita v Adam Fugitt
