Anticipation ran high at
UFC Fight Night 218 as the heavyweight contender bout between
Derrick
Lewis and
Sergey
Spivak took center stage. The tension was palpable as the two
warriors stepped into the cage, ready to unleash hell on each
other.
It was Spivak who proved to be the superior fighter, as he
dominated Lewis from the outset. With a display of striking
precision and grappling dominance, “The Polar Bear” took control of
the fight and never let go. The bout was one-sided, with Lewis
unable to mount any sort of comeback, and it was all over in a
matter of minutes.
It’s clear that Spivak has now earned himself a shot at the top
five, and fans are eager to see how he will fare against the
division’s elite. But before we look ahead, let’s take a moment to
reflect on this incredible performance and see how Spivak was able
to dominate Lewis so thoroughly. It’s time for Aftermath, and we’re
diving in!
Derrick
Lewis: Is Retirement on the Horizon?
Technical analysis is always a pain when it comes to Lewis. He’s
hardly a tactician and relies almost exclusively on his power to
win him fights. He stands with legs locked, hands in odd places,
and swings for the fences. Lewis is a better example of what not to
do in a fight than of how to win. Recently, Lewis has been on the
wrong side of some one-sided ass-whoopins by the likes of
Tai
Tuivasa,
Sergei
Pavlovich and now Spivak. This is the first time he’s been
handed three straight losses in his 37-fight career. Lewis, who
turns 38 this week, isn’t a young fighter by any means, but at
heavyweight “high level” fights and titles can still be won. Lewis
seems to be out of touch with what modern heavyweight MMA truly is,
though.
He’s made his money and has successful businesses outside of
fighting. It’s not as if Lewis is hurting. He’s getting in the cage
and taking unnecessary beatings and, to be honest, he needs to
retire before he goes the way of the fighters who were great in the
UFC but never won a title.
Donald
Cerrone,
Tony
Ferguson and others have been to the big dance then started
taking massive damage later in their careers.
The true question is whether Lewis should be fighting anymore. He’s
clearly not good enough to compete at a high level. Sure, he’s
popular. Sure, he can produce some highlights. But will it benefit
him? At this point, I think the damage he’d take would outweigh the
extra paychecks. Maybe we can get a farewell fight in Houston that
he can actually win?
Spivak couldn’t have had a better showing at “UFC Vegas 68.” His
bludgeoning of Lewis was pure perfection, holding him to zero
punches landed on three attempts. That’s it. His performance was so
solid that we had nothing to talk about in terms of an analytical
view of Lewis’ performance. Bravo, Sergey. That was a
masterpiece.
In this week's edition of
Beforemath, we talked about the importance of Spivak avoiding
the big shots, specifically the rear uppercut that Lewis murked
Blaydes with. The premise was simple: Shoot to Lewis' power hand
and he's going to throw that rear uppercut and look to land a
mega-punch. We also looked at Spivak shooting a takedown on
Greg
Hardy and shooting into the power hand. That was a giant red
flag and one that Spivak and his team worked on for this fight,
although it's not quite apparent.