Derrick Lewis Says He’s Healthy at Last and Ready For UFC Fight Night 126

Derrick Lewis spoke with MMAjunkie ahead of his fight with Marcin Tybura at UFC Fight Night 126. Highlights are below:

On his back issues: “I really haven’t trained the last few years the way I’ve supposed to be training because of my back issue. We fixed it, and I trained my ass off for this fight. … I still feel like I’ve got a lot left in the tank. I’m taking my training more serious, my diet more serious. I’m just giving myself a chance. Before I wasn’t giving myself a chance. Doing half-ass training, my coaches would try to push me, and I’m still half-ass training. But this camp right here, I really pushed myself to the limits. I don’t have no pain nowhere, nothing. I’m training more than 30 minutes a day. I’m doing two-a-days. I’ve been doing two-a-days, training more than just stair master for 15 minutes and hitting pads for 15 minutes. I’ve been doing more than just that.”

On his motivation coming into the fight: “Of course it’s about the money and stuff like that, but I am hungrier than I was before, back in 2010 when I first started MMA. I feel ready to go. I got the rest that I needed and the time off, and I feel ready.”

On his goal for 2018: “We can see if we can rise up in the ranks and try to get paid more this year. Hopefully I can fight four more times this year. Hopefully I get Ngannou sometime down the line. He said he wanted some time off, but we’ll see. I’ve got to get past Tybura, and hopefully if I can get past him, I want Fabricio, then Ngannou sometime this year. Because I know he wanted time off (after losing to Stipe Miocic at UFC 220).”

On Tybura: “Hopefully he doesn’t really try to take me down. Hopefully that’s not the game plan that his camp has. If so, that’s going to be a problem for him if he tries to take me down. If I get on top and he tries to take me down, and I reverse him or whatever, that’s just going to be a bad situation for him.