Derrick Lewis will look to bounce back 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 20 November 2022.
Lewis (26-10, 1 NC) comes into the fight on the back of two straight defeats (and three losses from his last four trips to the Octagon), most recently being stopped in the first round against Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 277 in July.
‘The Black Beast’ admitted that there is no easy way to get over a loss – you simply have to get back in action and try again.
“There’s really nothing you can do to get over it,” Lewis said, reflecting on his latest loss. “That was a tough, hard loss. I believe I trained the hardest I could for that fight.”
Spivak (15-3) is a rising force in the heavyweight division and has won five of his last six matches, most recently stopping Augusto Sakai in the second round of their fight in August.
The 27-year-old Moldovan, known as ‘The Polar Bear’, has also claimed the scalps of Greg Hardy, Alexey Oleynik, Jared Vanderaa and Carlos Felipe in his current hot streak – with only a loss to the highly-regarded Tom Aspinall in the mix.
UFC expert and former lightweight fighter Josh Thomson believes Spivak’s momentum will tip the favour in his balance: “Derrick Lewis [has got] the power, [but] I feel like he's losing the drive a little bit for the fight game... Spivak is up-and-coming. Look for him to weather the storm and utilise every tool that he has in the tool box to get a win over Lewis. I'm gonna probably lean a little bit towards Spivak.”
The remainder of the card features a light heavyweight co-main pitting Ion Cutelaba against Nigerian Kennedy Nzechukwu; Rodolfo Vieira v Cody Brundage in the middleweight division; a heavyweight showdown between Chase Sherman and Waldo Cortes-Acosta; a welterweight battle in which Andre Fialho will face Muslim Salikhov; and a welterweight opener between Jack Della Maddalena and Danny Roberts.
UFC Fight Night: Lewis v Spivak – Main card
- Main event: Heavyweight: Derrick Lewis v Sergey Spivak
- Light heavyweight: Ion Cutelaba v Kennedy Nzechukwu
- Middleweight: Rodolfo Vieira v Cody Brundage
- Heavyweight: Chase Sherman v Waldo Cortes-Acosta
- Welterweight: Andre Fialho v Muslim Salikhov
- Welterweight: Jack Della Maddalena v Danny Roberts
