Derrick Lewis has revealed that the reason that he had to withdraw from a fight with Sergey Spivak in November just hours before they were set to go head-to-head in the main event was due to having COVID.
“It was a bummer,” Lewis said in his pre-fight interview ahead of the rescheduled match-up with Spivak at UFC Fight Night 218. “I wanted to fight. I felt like I trained as hard as I could, but I ended up getting COVID. No one knows this but my family and my coaches. I ended up catching COVID the week of the fight.
“I probably had COVID for three weeks after that. It was just hard. But I’m feeling good. I trained even harder for this fight. I’ve heard about the suffering that can come from COVID when it comes to your lungs. So I trained hard, and I’m feeling healthy. I haven’t had any issues.”
The soon-to-be 38-year-old Lewis is now visibly leaner since that no-show a few months ago, so it’ll be interesting to see how he performs on Saturday night as he looks to turn around a two-fight losing run in 2022.
“This is the perfect matchup. I’m ready for wherever the fight goes. I believe it’s a great fight for me coming off a couple losses. And my birthday is Tuesday. I need a win so I can go out and celebrate my birthday and start the year off right.”
