Derrick Lewis is preparing to headline UFC Fight Night 110 against another top ten ranked heavyweight in Mark Hunt.
The heavyweight contender recently signed a new contract with the UFC, on that the fighter says makes him one of the highest paid heavyweights in the UFC.
“I had threw a crazy number at them, and told them this is what I’d like, it’s the only way I’d fight, is for this certain amount of money,” Lewis said on The MMA Hour. “I didn’t even think they’d say okay, yeah, we’ll agree to that amount. I didn’t even think they would, and I was like, damn, I should have asked for more money then. And so they gave me the right type of contract that I wanted, and that’s the reason I’m fighting right now. Yeah right, I wish, it’s six figures but I wish it was seven. I wouldn’t be talking to you for free though. [But] yeah, it’s a big bump. I think it’s almost [by] half of what I made last fight. I’m probably one of the highest paid heavyweights right now.”
Lewis is going to be headlining his third straight UFC event and he does enter the fight on a six fight winning streak.
A pair of broken ribs affected Lewis after his last bout against Travis Browne, but the fighter has an interesting way of finding out if his injury is healed.
“Yeah, I’ve been training 100 percent,” he said. “I’m not letting that stop me or hold me back at all. It should be good. Really, the only way I’ve been testing it out is by having sex with my wife. That’s the only way I can feel that it’s 100 percent, when she wraps her legs around me, so right now it’s not really hurting as bad as it used to.”
UFC Fight Night 110 takes place on Saturday, June 10 from the Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand with Derrick Lewis and Mark Hunt headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox Sports 1.