Derrick Lewis vs Alexander Volkov | FULL FIGHT | UFC Classics

For Derek Lewis and his counterpart Alexander Volkov. Tonight's fight clock is brought to you by Modelo Espessi. All brewed with a fighting spirit since 1925. Lewis is in black, Alexander Volkov in gray. And that fight that Lewis had against Verduma was October 2017 and Derek forced to pull out just a few hours before the fight, but he's worked hard on his posture. He's stretching pre and post-workout now and feels like his back hasn't felt this good in years. We'll see if it pays dividends tonight. Well, there's been a lot of guys with back injuries, but you've got to wonder what he could do to fix that, whether it's surgically or through some sort of long-term therapy, but he continues to fight. It's very difficult to train when you have that kind of an injury. Right. Almost impossible, Joe. I mean, the fact that he said it limited his training a lot, so I'm curious to see what kind of output he has even in this first round. Did you ask him what he does to supplement with it for endurance? Well, he doesn't have any supplements. He just says, I got a round that I'm going to try to take this guy out in. That's what he said. So let's see what happens here. He got tagged, front kick to the body. He's hurt. That body shot hurt him. Grip bumps all over him. The knees and the teeth kick to the belly already hurt so bad. Lewis loads up, nothing doing there. Strong start for Drago. He's not going to go out easy, Derek Lewis. I'm not going to make this easy. Drago just shook his left hand. Oh, my God. Counter right from Volkow. Huge right uppercut lands. Derek Lewis trying to tough it out. Something might have hurt his eye, hurt his nose, because you don't react like that unless it lands really wrong. I'm not sure. See, his eye might be, it could be his orbital, but he's toughing it out. He don't care. Let's see what happens here. Pay attention to Volkow's left hand. He was shaking it earlier. He accidentally poked him. Good sportsmanship by Volkow to even say that. Yeah. He could have kept going. Nobody would have known. Volkow's pointing to his mouth, though. He's saying that he fish hooked him. He's saying something. Why are you stopping the fight? It's OK. It's time to fight. I'm not exactly sure what he's saying. I think he was saying that Volkow was stopping it himself, but there was no eye poke. He just stopped because he thought he was poking him in the eye. And Volkow could have kept going. Yeah, you can lose a fight for calling time out. Yeah. Two minutes have gone by. Volkow goes high with the kick. Nothing to it. I may be mistaken, but I felt like he was pointing towards his mouth, saying that Derek Lewis reached into his mouth or something. I don't know, though. That was confusing. He's already landed some big shots to the body of Lewis, and he keeps going to the body with those punches and teep kicks. And I'm being told there was no eye poke, so Herb Dean largely did his job there. Volkow switching up the footwork here early. I'm sure the truck will isolate it. Wow, what a crazy-looking takedown he attempted. Derek Lewis has had a penchant for fighting well, or at least surviving well, off of his back in his UFC tenure. Trying to control posture here. Just over two minutes to go in our opening round. Lewis uses that underhook to get back up to his feet. Keep those hands tight. Oh, that's the hand that he said he needed to land, and there it is. He only needs one of those. Yeah, that's what makes Derek Lewis so fun to watch. Hammers. Oh, big takedown. So the high-amplitude takedown here from Alexander Volkow. Let's see what he can do with it. Short elbows. We might not see Derek Lewis get up from this. He might just be OK with just waiting it out, waiting for the round to start over. We've seen Lewis rally from adversity before he got dropped by Tim Johnson early, came back to win that fight. Slow start against Shamil Abdurahimov in a main event. But not necessarily the start he was looking for tonight, though. There's definitely no quit in Derek Lewis, though. I mean, you could hurt him, and he could still knock you out with one punch, as you saw. He grabbed his eye, took three steps back. The second Volkow came at him, he threw an overhand right and almost got him. Volkow's taking his back here. And this is that brown belt he was talking about there. Let's see if he can utilize it and get the finish here. I mean, he's got the back. He may switch to the arm. He may switch to the left arm. The way he's holding the wrist there. Definitely there, Joe. You're exactly right. But he's not setting the legs up exactly like he's going to do that. Yeah, he might switch. Look at this. Good job by Volkow, staying on the back. Uh-oh. Nice by Derek Lewis. The man you want on top of you in this situation. Under 30 seconds to go in the round. Big elbow by Lewis. He's just so strong. Oh! From Derek Lewis here. Beast! In the camp. Khabib versus McGregor is presented by Harley-Davidson. When you fire up an HD motorcycle, adrenaline kicks in and refuses to tap out. Check it out at h-d.com slash explore. And Derek Lewis, his corners are exactly right. Look how far out he is. I mean, that's Volkow range right there. You can't be eating those kicks. Because what he'll do, he'll jab you, tape you, and kick you. And then when you run in, he's going to knee you or elbow you. And that's what we've seen so far. But Derek Lewis needs to get in that pocket ASAP. Nice right hand. Oh, he's stiffened up. Lewis covering up. Lewis looking tired. Yeah, he's in trouble. But he will always throw those bombs. Always has that one, though. Always has that punch. And it looks like a potentially serious orbital injury for Derek Lewis that maybe is affecting him in the fight. That's the second time he's gone for that takedown. Yeah, the left eye does seem like it's swelling underneath the left eye. But what's interesting is they have the end swell on the right eye in between rounds. So that might be bothering him as well. I think it could be orbital, like you guys were saying. That's when you usually see people grabbing at their eye like that. It's supposed to be one of the most painful things you can do. Thank God I haven't dealt with it. But I could imagine that big hand of Volkow in my eye might do it too. You just keep moving that head, though. There's that right hand again, right to that eye. As a bantamweight, when you watch heavyweights fight, does it kind of freak you out how little they move? Well, that doesn't freak me out. It freaks me out how big and giant they are and that only one of those punches is just like it'll probably knock me in the next year. They're enormous. Oh, big jab. That was a jab. The human brain can only take so much pressure. I don't care how big you are. These guys are nailing each other. Air Asia. Now everyone can fly. Volkow seemingly not in any rush when he has had Derek Lewis on the ropes. Continues to bide his time. Three minutes now to go round two. Why? I just think he's got to be cautious because of that. Because Derek Lewis can always fire back and knock you into another dimension. Lewis's nine UFC knockouts tied for second most in UFC heavyweight history. Six of those on the ground. Right now, Lewis is playing the game where he's pulling Volkow back into his power. You see him pulling? He's trying to get Volkow to come to him to land the big strike, but Volkow's not biting. What Volkow could do is start using some jabs. Start using those teeth kicks. Start beating up the legs of Lewis. Don't just look in the mirror is what I call this. You're staring at the mirror. Some fakes get Derek Lewis biting on something. Right now, they're going speed for speed, shot for shot. There needs to be something in the middle to fill the gaps for these guys to offset each other. Nice, that can land all day. That's the type of stuff Volkow should be doing nonstop. Volkow switched stances quite a bit as well. You see him now, he's moved back to orthodox. He was fighting southpaw for a bit. But I completely agree with you about attacking those legs. And the body. I mean, anytime he's hit Derek in the body, it almost seems to affect him. Pretty good counter right from Alexander Volkow. Much more of a volume guy than Derek Lewis is. If I'm Volkow, I'm firing left teep kicks to the gut of Derek Lewis for the rest of the fight and then bring it high just like he did there. Keep going to legs, keep going to the body. That'll drop Lewis's hands, take the wind out of his sails and take away some of that power. He's doing that front kick to the body over and over again here. Jabs and teep kicks all day will get the win for Volkow. And if Volkow fakes more, he'll have more openings. Nice job by Volkow using that length. You know, we talked a lot about Stefan Struve in the past, maybe not maximizing his length. Volkow uses it well. The Irish are already singing. Lewis at times can lull you into a false sense of not security, but comfort. And then he comes with those lunchboxes. 45 seconds here in round two. Beautiful inside leg kick for Volkow. Counter right from the Black Beast. Always dangerous. His ability to explode. I mean, if he could just figure out how to fix his back problem. Goodness, he's throwing that from the hip and it's still landing. Bad left high, yep. Uppercut lost the mouthpiece. Volkow lost his mouthpiece. I don't know if Herb Dean has seen it. He's seen it. He's going to pick it up. Ha, you put him in, bro. I don't think he knew it was his mouthpiece. Oh, wow. So that is the end of round two. Time for the official protein snack of UFC. A huge five minutes here in terms of the landscape of this UFC heavyweight division. Derek Lewis, Alexander Volkow. We'll see who emerges here as heavyweight contender. Less than five minutes now to go. And his corner mints no words. And you can see Derek Lewis looking to unload bombs. Man, fakes, feints would go a long way with these giant gentlemen. Well, we saw some earlier from Volkow. We're just not seeing much anymore. You see how they're just staring and then going. So there's no break in rhythm. There's no timing. It's just like, all right, when you go, I'll be faster than you. No, I'll hit harder than you. He's giving them a little. There it goes. That's what he needs more of, those. And then teep kicks. Maybe go to the legs a little bit. Lewis playing the pool game. It's the third time he's tried that takedown. And you fake the single and you step around. It's not high percentage takedown, but it does work in transition. But from the outside like that, not very utilized, I would say. Volkow going southpaw here. He wasn't going to engage Lewis there on the ground. Under four minutes to go. Every time Lewis flurries, this building gets ready to crescendo. Nothing doing there, though. And what's funny is you see Derek Lewis control the pace of fights over and over. Right hand behind the ear and another one for good measure. Lewis able to survive another onslaught from Volkow. What a chin on Derek Lewis. He looks like he's going to go down and then he'll just wing it overhand or something out of nowhere. Almost like he's playing possum. Not here, though. That one hurts. He wins the eye again. He's covering up his eye, but it was a punch, according to Herb Dean. Right. And Volkow wisely continues to attack that damaged orbital area of Derek Lewis. Under three minutes now to go. I mean, how dangerous must Lewis actually be for Volkow to be taking this pace when he's got him hurt over and over and he's just so cautious? Well, he's so dangerous that Volkow thought that the mouthpiece wasn't his. Good point. Well, Lewis came in, at least statistically, if you care, with the best striking defense among active heavyweights. So Volkow has certainly changed that percentage around a little bit tonight. When you get your mouthpiece knocked out and you don't know you got your mouthpiece knocked out. You try to hand it to your opponent. Like, here you go. You put this on, man. I don't want it. Ouch. Those hurt. Those will work all night. That team kick, go back and forth and then throw a jab out there. You can just slowly chop down Lewis because Lewis has no offense right now. And he's only backing up. I think Lewis is just saving it for the last minute. I mean, that's all I could really think of here. Well, he's just wading in, isn't he? Yep. He's trying to pull Volkow, but Volkow won't throw anything. He's just kind of waiting for him because he knows Lewis is looking to counter him. So he's just playing the waiting game back and forth. It's counter for counter with these two gentlemen. 90 seconds to go. Oh, nice kick to the body. And again, those are going to keep landing all night if he keeps throwing it. What Lewis has to do right there. You can't stay at kick range. This is what he needs to do. And he's been waiting for the last minute here. As you can see, he's pressuring now. But if you're not going to be eating those kicks and those jabs, you've got to keep going and you got to keep pressure. You got to keep Volkow on his heels. That's a big right from Derek Lewis. See how much the Black Beast has left in the tank. And if he can rally here down the stretch. He just eats stuff and looks at you. He doesn't even care. Yeah, he just kind of wobbles and then looks for a hammer. It's so fun to watch, though, because you just don't know what's going to happen. You're exactly right. They help him do his feet. The Black Beast has done it. Good. Where's Daniel Cormier at? Wow. Derek Lewis. Unbelievable. It really is, though. It truly, really is. It's crazy. Believable. Crazy. He does not care. He'll take a nap in the middle of this octagon right now with the microphone. That kind of power. That kind of power and that heart. Heart is right. He's touching his heart right there. He knows. Outstanding. Just when you thought his fan base couldn't swell anymore. I present to you UFC 229. This replay brought to you by Nemerov. Bold character since 1872. How about that visual there? That's and this is heavyweights, ladies and gentlemen. Boom. Weighted the entire fight. A one-two down the middle. And then non-stop disgusting ground and pound. Jab overhand right. Bam. Unfolded. The skyscraper to the floor and then gets pounded into rubble on the ground. Bam. I mean, you see his head just fold back like a PEZ dispenser as his mouthpiece falls out again. Insane power by Derek Lewis. This man knows he had to tough it out and knew if he landed it would be over and he proved it. Look at that ground and pound. It's all over. He has that break-your-face-open type of power and with respect to... Ladies and gentlemen, referee Herb Dean has called a stop to this contest at 4 minutes 49 seconds of the third round. Declaring the winner by knockout, Derek Lewis.