Salt Lake City, UT — UFC 291 heavyweight Derrick Lewis has revealed a shocking health scare he endured ahead of his last fight.
Lewis (26-11, 1NC) fell to Serghei Spivac in his last outing, submitted via arm-triangle in a little over three minutes. But just over 24 hours out from the fight, Lewis had actually passed out, he revealed during Wednesday’s UFC 291 media day.
“The last few fights I haven’t been healthy. Point bank, period. The last fight I actually passed out. Just before weigh-ins, I blacked out, my coaches had to carry me,” revealed Lewis, noting the size difference between his team and himself, a heavyweight who cuts a sizable amount of weight to get down under 265 pounds. “The little guy right there in the middle, he had to hold me up and make sure I stayed conscious. I just didn’t have the energy the rest of the week.”
The culprit in this case was a weight cut that Lewis left to essentially the last minute.
“What’s been going on is like, I waited [until] three days before weigh-ins, then started trying to cut weight. I cut like 25 pounds in three days, just not eating and just drinking water, probably a little something to eat.” Having fainted once already, however Lewis has changed things up ahead of his UFC 291 fight with Marcos Rogerio de Lima.
“For sure, it’s just been a big adjustment. I’m already at weight right now,” Lewis stated. “I don’t believe I have to cut anything, I’m already at weight.”
Lewis admits that passing out ahead of the Spivac fight “was a big eye opener. It was always in the back of my head, in the fight. I felt like I actually died. I was thinking of all the other fighters that went through something like that, and they blacked out and they came back and they couldn’t fight.”
“Good thing it happened at the PI [UFC Performance Institute], and they gave me all the stuff I needed to get up and walk up out of there. But it was a very scary moment though.”
Having pulled out of a fight just a few months before on short notice, Lewis didn’t want to withdraw a second time. “We couldn’t just do it again, right? That short notice again. So we just went ahead and tried to fight. And I didn’t have no energy the entire fight.”
Watch the full UFC 291 media day appearance by Derrick Lewis above.
