Derrick Lewis beat Aleksei Oleinik by TKO in the main event of UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Oleinik at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on August 8th. He is now 24-8 in his career.
Lewis is the second oldest of seven siblings, raised by a single mother in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was involved in street fighting and he began training in boxing when he was 17 years old. Lewis was getting ready for his first amateur fight but the gym unexpectedly shut down.
After some personal issues, he was sentenced to five years in prison and ended up serving three and a half. A week after being released he was introduced to MMA by a friend.
He was working as a tow-truck driver and he trained boxing with George Foreman. Lewis’ amateur MMA career began in late 2009. He went 4-1 as a pro before signing with Bellator in May, 2010. He would lose to Tony Johnson via unanimous decision at Bellator 46 on June 25th, 2011.
Lewis went 6-0 with one no contest after leaving Bellator. This record includes winning and successfully defending the Legacy FC Heavyweight Championship.
UFC was impressed and signed him. “The Black Beast” has wins against Roy Nelson, Travis Browne, Francis Ngannou, Alexander Volkov and Aleksei Oleinik. He has also faced Mark Hunt, Daniel Cormier and Junior dos Santos and he was coming off decision wins against Blagoy Ivanov and Ilir Latifi before facing Oleinik.
Derrick Lewis needs only one shot to knock out anyone and that is exactly what happened against a patient fighter like Aleksei Oleinik, who was also coming off a two-fight win streak.
