It was as if Derrick Lewis‘ seven-year, 21-fight UFC career had been preparing us specifically for this. The single most Derrick Lewis fight in history. The platonic ideal of the concept of a Derrick Lewis fight. We shouldn’t have been shocked when it happened, but it was somehow more beautiful than we ever could have imagined.
On Saturday, Lewis got in the cage with Curtis Blaydes, a fellow elite heavyweight who has been mashing opponents’ faces into crab meat for years. It was a clash of the styles these two men personify: swang-and-bang vs. ground-and-pound. Only, for the first round-plus, it wasn’t much of a clash at all.
Lewis stood there and did nothing in the first round. Then, for the first minute of the second round, he stood there and did nothing. As of about six minutes and 20 seconds into the fight, Blaydes had outlanded Lewis 28-4. That’s the point where you start to mark a win for Blaydes down in your head, and start thinking about who he’s fighting next.
But we should have known: the regular rules of mixed martial arts don’t apply to Derrick Lewis.
Derrick Lewis has been fighting at an elite level for the better part of a decade. He’s been a consistent top 5 or 10 contender for coming on five years now. I still don’t think he’s actually good at any single facet of mixed martial arts except Punch Hard. But holy fuck, there may not be another man on the face of the Earth who can punch as hard as him.
Lewis can stand there and do absolutely nothing, showing no particular MMA skill for large stretches of a fight, because he knows the instant he punches you, you will die. To beat Derrick Lewis, a fighter has to be good for 25 minutes. Lewis only has to be good for one second. Surely he can’t keep just getting away with this?
You might not think so. But like I said, the regular rules do not apply to Derrick Lewis. You can’t grapple him because he’ll decide that grappling isn’t real and he’ll just ignore you and stand up. And if he punches you, you’re toast. But even with as low an output fighter as Lewis can be sometimes, can you avoid getting hit for the entire fight?
This shit shouldn’t work. It shouldn’t work! Derrick Lewis is losing every single fight he’s in until he suddenly wins. This formula should be unsustainable, but he’s been sustaining it his entire career. He’s now the co-holder of the UFC’s most total career knockouts record, alongside future Hall of Famer Vitor Belfort. He’s won 13 of his last 16 in the Octagon, with wins over the likes of Blaydes, Francis Ngannou and Alexander Volkov. Those are some of the very best heavyweights in the world – call Lewis a one-trick pony if you want, but that pony has been trampling some of the UFC’s elite consistently for a long time.
Lewis isn’t in great shape, he’s not a very technical striker, he moves slowly and he doesn’t know how to grapple. But the power that resides in his fists is the ultimate equalizer. And even though that one-punch pop may be the only above-average table he brings to the table, it’s not like he’s just throwing blindly. He may talk funny, but he’s not stupid. He knows how to get those paws to land.
You see MMA analysts and coaches often criticize fighters like Lewis, who eschew executing a technical gameplan instead of hunting for the one big shot at all times. But for Lewis, it’s the best and most effective strategy he has. He knows quite well he only needs one. And when Lewis noticed Blaydes leaving himself open on his takedown entries, he dialed up the perfect punch: a vicious uppercut down the middle that removed Blaydes from consciousness completely. Lewis’ one-punch KOs and just-stand-up moments from the bottom involve a lot more technique than it may appear at first glance, but it’s Lewis’ unique strength and power that allows him to do things that don’t work for anyone else.
Derrick Lewis has hacked the sport of mixed martial arts. He can completely ignore everything that makes a regular MMA fighter good. To paraphrase Tyler the Creator, Hahahahahahahaha How The Fuck Is Mixed Martial Arts Real Hahahaha Just Punch Him In The Head Like Swang And Bang Haha.
There’s no one else like him. There might not be a single other fighter on the planet who could follow Derrick Lewis’ path as far as he has. And after Saturday, it looks like he’ll keep treading that path, slowly but surely, back towards the top.
The Big Fight 