Lewis Derrick

Derrick Lewis was born February 7, 1985 in New Orleans , Louisiana . He was brought up by a single mother, had six brothers and sisters. Being a difficult child, he constantly got involved in street fights. In 1999, together with his family, he moved permanently to Houston , Texas .

At the age of seventeen, he began to seriously engage in boxing , preparing for his first amateur fight, but shortly before it began, the boxing gym was unexpectedly closed. Two weeks after graduating from high school, Lewis was charged with aggravated assault and put on probation. He entered Kilgore College, where he was a student in the American football team , but did not graduate from this educational institution - he violated his probationary period and was sentenced to five years in prison (as a result, he spent about three and a half years in prison). Freed, he worked as a tow truck driver, soon became acquainted with mixed martial arts, and also under the tutelage of George Foreman continued to practice boxing. In 2009, he participated in amateur fights on MMA and, on the wave of success, decided to abandon boxing in favor of mixed martial arts ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

He made his debut in mixed martial arts among professionals in April 2010, by technical knockout in the second round of the famous American reseller Nick Mitchell . In his second duel, he was defeated by compatriot Sean Jordan by a unanimous decision. Later won a few more battles, including early defeated Ryan Martinez . In 2011, Lewis joined Bellator's major American promotion, but failed to gain a foothold here, yielding to the unanimous judicial decision of Tony Johnson ^[4] .

Despite the losses, Derrick Lewis continued to regularly participate in fights in various American promotions and made a series of several victories in a row, in particular, having gained the upper hand over Jared Rosholt , he won the heavyweight title of the Legacy Fighting Championship . Once defended the obtained championship belt. One of his fights was stopped at the beginning of the first round and declared invalid due to repeated blows to the back of the head.

With nine wins and only two losses in his record, Lewis attracted the attention of the largest fighting organization Ultimate Fighting Championship and signed a long-term agreement with her. He made his debut in the UFC in April 2014, the first two rivals won ahead of schedule in the very first rounds. In the third battle, having met with Matt Mithrion , he himself was knocked out in the first round. In 2015, he defeated the South African fighter Ruan Potts and in the rematch he again lost to Sean Jordan. He had to fight with Anthony Hamilton , but he withdrew from the fight due to injury, and in the end he was replaced by Czech Victor Pest , whom Lewis defeated by technical knockout. In 2016, he defeated such famous fighters as Damian Grabovsky , Gabriel Gonzaga (the best performance of the evening), Roy Nelson , Shamil Abdurahimov ^{[5] [6] [7] [8]} .

Thanks to a series of successful appearances, he was awarded the right to challenge the UFC heavyweight champion title held by Daniel Cormier . However, in the second round of their confrontation, he got caught in a choke from behind and was forced to surrender.

• Derrick Lewis - professional fights statistics on the Sherdog website