The heavyweight doesn’t seem too impressed with JDS, whom Lewis calls the weakest opponent he has ever fought.
“He’s probably the weakest guy that I’m gonna fight out of the guys that I’ve fought before,” Lewis told Helen Yee (via MMA Fighting). “He’s probably like the fifth or the sixth guy. I don’t think he’s the toughest guy I’ve ever fought so we’ll see on March 9th.”
Lewis has fought twenty eight times as a professional MMA fighter, so JDS supposedly being his weakest opponent is saying something about the past opposition.
One opponent that Lewis almost fought instead of Dos Santos was former UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic, whom Lewis turned down due to a lack of preparation time.
“You’ve really got to stay ready 24/7,” Lewis said. “You really can’t get ready because there’s no telling. They’ll call you short notice to fight anyone so you really have to stay ready. They offered me Stipe but I told them it was too short of a notice. It was right after the DC fight and they wanted me to fight in January, right after I just lost to DC. So I just told them no, I needed some time off. I had a fight in November then they wanted me to fight in January. I’m like, damn! This are all top guys so I needed some time off. I wanted a full training camp. My body, my mind wasn’t quite right.”
UFC Fight Night Wichita takes place on Saturday, March 9 from the Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas with Derrick Lewis and Junior Dos Santos headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which streams live on ESPN+.
