It was Oct. 6, 2018, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Derrick Lewis was losing badly, on the verge of one of the worst losses of his career.
Six-foot-7 Russian heavyweight Alexander Volkov was seconds away from victory. To add insult to dominance, Volkov was talking trash midfight. When Lewis’ cornermen were telling him to “go” and throw more punches, Volkov would mock them, saying “Go, Derrick! Go!” while he landed shots of his own.
But with 11 seconds left, Lewis had the final word. He walked Volkov down and landed a sizzling left-jab, overhand-right combination. Volkov’s head snapped back, and he fell to the canvas. Lewis finished with punches on the ground as the referee stopped the fight. Lewis, who calls himself “The Black Beast,” had pulled out another come-from-behind victory.
“[Volkov] was taunting me that whole fight,” Lewis told ESPN. “He was trying to taunt my coaches. Once I hit him, and the way I did it and everything, it was just like, perfect.
“I finally woke up at the end of the fight. I turned into Beast mode, or whatever, at the end of the fight and decided, ‘OK, I want this fight over with.’ And I ended up ending the fight.”
With that win, Lewis earned the first title shot of his career, which he lost to Daniel Cormier at UFC 230 in November 2018.
On Saturday, Lewis will get another opportunity at a belt. He’ll fight the up-and-coming Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 265 in Lewis’ adopted hometown of Houston for the interim heavyweight championship. The card is built around Lewis, which shows his evolution not only as a fighter but also as a popular figure in mixed martial arts.
Along the way, Lewis has developed a loyal following with his self-deprecating humor and an ability to rally from imminent defeat to knock foes unconscious. Lewis has four knockouts in the third round or later, and he has three KOs when having a negative strike differential. His 12 KOs/TKOs are tied with Vitor Belfort and Matt Brown for the most in UFC history, and he is the all-time leader for knockouts in UFC heavyweight history.
“I like to knock people out,” Lewis said. “I get a high off of it. It’s a great feeling. … It’s like the best feeling in the world.”
His opponents describe how Lewis’ punches feel different and how surprised they are that a 6-foot-3, 260-pound man can be so agile and keep his power until the very end of a fight. The latter trait is one Gane needs to be wary of, according to those who have faced Lewis, because even though Gane is a heavy -370 favorite according to Caesars Sportsbook, Lewis is 6-3 as a betting underdog in the UFC.
Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity
Daniel Cormier, former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion
Beat Lewis via second-round submission at UFC 230 on Nov. 3, 2018
Derrick is very powerful, obviously, in all regards. He hasn’t had the success of a guy like Jon Jones or Conor McGregor, but he’s one of those guys who is absolutely free in there. He has no fear. He just wants to fight, loves fighting. He’s tremendously talented. I think that’s one of those things people miss about Derrick Lewis — how athletically gifted he is. You don’t get to do some of the things Derrick Lewis does and not have elite-level athleticism. There are times when he does things and I’m like, “Wow, this big dude can put this together.” It’s tremendous.
When he hits you, it’s different. I was holding his leg up, and he was punching me, and I had a black eye for three days. That’s the power that he has. A guy with his leg up in the air, about to get taken down, and he’s just throwing punches defensively because I’m holding him in that position. When he was punching me, I was like, “Wow, this dude hits really hard.” But it’s not even just the punches. I think that’s what’s missing in the whole thing. People think Derrick Lewis just punches hard, but he did a jumping kick and it hit my arm, and I had knots on my arm. It’s everything he does. He’s a very big, dense guy.
He’s one of those guys with that demeanor like, “Oh, I’m kind of just here.” You kind of get lost in the jokes and him messing around when the reality is, he’s a high-level mixed martial artist. I think his fight against Curtis Blaydes showed that after I beat him in the fashion I did; he went back to work. Because his wrestling is better now. Curtis is a good wrestler. We’ve seen Curtis ground everybody, but he was not able to take Derrick down. And even when he did get takedowns, he wasn’t able to hold him down. He did a good job of getting back up when he was taken down.
I think at this point it’s time to stop considering Derrick Lewis as just a brawler. That knockout of Blaydes was him backing up. He was on his heels when he did that. That’s next-level power — when a guy can do that backing up, time that and land the shot that he did to finish Curtis Blaydes. I couldn’t believe it. Not only did he knock him out, he f—ed him up bad. He slept him. Let’s not let that aw-shucks attitude trick you. This guy is the real deal. Gane has to be on his game or he’s going to beat him.
Beat Lewis via unanimous decision at Bellator 46 on June 25, 2011
Derrick is super f—ing strong, and he hits so damn hard. Every time he hit me, you could hear it. It sounded like frickin’ bricks hitting each other. After that fight, I swear I was like a newborn. I had like soft spots on my head. I didn’t train like I needed to for that fight, and he taught me a valuable lesson: Never underestimate anybody.
I think it was the third round. I had his leg. I was trying to take Derrick down. I had the single leg, and he got some kind of angle and hammerfisted me one time. And I felt that. The second time, I felt light-headed. The third time, I was like, “Oh s—, I can’t stay here any longer.” The dude has power throughout the whole fight. That’s why he’s so dangerous. He’s never out of it. I got cracked with his full punch, too. It didn’t feel great. I looked like Quasimodo after that fight in my face.
I’ve been hit by him and Francis Ngannou. I don’t know which one hits harder, Francis or Derrick, but they both hit like frickin’ Mack trucks. I’ve been hit by Deontay Wilder. I’ve been hit by the hardest hitters in the sport. Deontay tops everyone, but it’s close between Francis and Derrick.
Derrick, he don’t give a s— about takedowns or kicking you. He wants to knock your head off. He sits down on his punches a little more. Derrick moves real well for a heavyweight, too. He’ll surprise you. You know he’s working because he stopped Curtis Blaydes’ takedowns. He’s going to be a problem.
Lost to Lewis via first-round TKO at RFA 2 on March 30, 2012
I felt like I was doing really good, but Derrick has a way of kind of turning around and wrecking people really fast. I started out really strong, put him in a bad position and took his back. I was going for a rear-naked choke. And dude just kind of stood up with me on his back like I wasn’t there. His strength was crazy. He just kind of manhandled me off to the side. We started trading — I knew that was a bad idea. I knew not to get myself against the cage, but he didn’t give me any other choice. Dude hits hard. I felt like the fact I didn’t go to sleep was a testament to my chin, because he’s put some people away.
He’s explosive, too. I think he kind of sandbags it. I came out and I threw this kind of setup overhand and I cracked him. And the second I hit him, I went and got him down and got full mount. I felt really comfortable eight seconds into the round being on top. But I couldn’t do anything with him once I got him there. He was so strong. He just kind of climbed back up. When he explodes, he explodes. He could have been a phenomenal defensive end or something in the NFL.
Lost to Lewis via split decision at UFC Fight Night: dos Anjos vs. Alvarez on July 7, 2016
He just doesn’t give up. If you’re going to beat him, you’ve got to finish him. You’re not going to be able to skate by. For me, I did everything. I lost by split decision because he just kept on getting up, getting up, getting up, getting up.
I think the best example is the Alexander Volkov fight. Volkov beat Derrick from one end of the ring to the other end of the ring for three frickin’ rounds. If Volkov would have just ran for the last minute like everyone else does when they’re fighting a puncher, then Volkov would have won. But he didn’t, and Derrick knocked him out.
When Derrick fought Travis Browne, Travis Browne was throwing body kicks. I don’t know if Derrick was hurt or not, but he was acting like he was. And Travis Browne started throwing more kicks. Derrick baited him to walk into a right hand. I think Derrick grabbed his side like, “Oh, that hurt.” But I don’t think it really hurt.
Lost to Lewis twice — at Worldwide Gladiator on Nov. 12, 2010 (submission), and Legacy FC 9 on Dec. 16, 2011 (TKO)
The difference between Derrick and other guys is he always has power. It doesn’t matter if he’s tired or he’s fresh. It stays the same, no matter what. Some guys start off really strong and throw really hard. His power just stays constant. It’s not something that comes out strong in the beginning and then disappears. Not everybody has it.
Lost to Lewis via third-round TKO at UFC 192 on Oct. 3, 2015
What is so unique is he looks kind of sloppy. But then he always comes back and pulls off that great upset, which could be called luck or something — but he’s doing it all the time. Obviously, it’s not luck. It’s just something … I don’t really understand how he’s doing it — if it’s strategy or if he’s kind of like winging it and pulls it off. It is really impressive. I feel like whenever people ask me, what’s my prediction for his fight; who is going to win; should I bet on him — I can never tell. He’s so hard to bet on or bet against.
You’d expect Lewis to lack cardio when you look at him. That’s what I thought, too. I thought I’d wear him out and finish him in the later rounds. He came out stronger in the later rounds. That’s unique, too. That might be part of his strategy, just kind of chilling and saving his energy. He only uses the energy when he feels like he can get something out of it. He TKO’d me, but it was more like I was so exhausted and he was on top of me. I wasn’t knocked out. He hit me good. He obviously has power, but to me it didn’t feel like something that crazy. I don’t think he has Francis Ngannou kind of power.
“I was holding his leg up, and he was punching me, and I had a black eye for three days.”
Daniel Cormier
After the first round, I felt really confident. I felt like he’s got nothing on me. It was like midway through the second round when I was starting to get tired. He’s so much heavier, and to keep wrestling him and taking him down was exhausting. By the end of the second round, he just kept getting up. I went for a desperate takedown, and it wasn’t very well done. I got stuck on the bottom. I thought I’d just stay here and hang out until the end of the round. There were 20 seconds left or something. He just beat me up so badly that it was almost stopped at the end of that round.
Derrick has a lot of tactics, even though he pretends like he doesn’t. He’s a self-proclaimed brawler. I think he’s a smart fighter, and those comebacks are really well-thought-out. I don’t think they’re swings and try to hit something. He wants an opponent to feel comfortable, and then he strikes hard.
Lost to Lewis via unanimous decision at UFC 247 on Feb. 8, 2020
I think Derrick Lewis is a fighter who is mostly known for his knockout power, but people underestimate his skills and tactics. He is a fighter who can ride out the storm and come and finish the fight with one punch, but also he’s very athletic for his size. He threw a switch-kick and flying knees against me — all kinds of crazy stuff.
I was surprised over his speed and athleticism, how well he moved. That was impressive.
All but one NHL team will end the season on a bitter note, as there can be only one Stanley Cup champion. But on Saturday, we could have our very first playoff elimination of the 2025 playoffs.
The Ottawa Senators are on the brink heading into Saturday’s game. Despite taking the heavily favored Toronto Maple Leafs to overtime twice in a row, the Atlantic Division champs have scored the game winner each time in the extra session. Can the Senators win one in front of the home crowd to extend the series to five games?
Elsewhere in the Atlantic bracket, the Florida Panthers won both of the first two games in the Tampa Bay Lightning‘s building. Will this be a shorter series than many expected? And out West, the Minnesota Wild will look to extend their shocking series lead over the Vegas Golden Knights, and the Clash of the Western Titans continues in the Centennial State, as the Colorado Avalanche look to even things up with the Dallas Stars.
Having served his suspension for performance-enhancing substances, Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad is eligible to return for this game. The well-rounded blueliner skated 23:30 per game during the regular season, scoring three goals and 30 assists in 56 games.
The Panthers have another defenseman who has been delivering this postseason; Nate Schmidt scored a goal in Games 1 and 2, becoming the first defenseman in franchise history with two game-winning goals in a single postseason — and they’re only two games in!
All eyes will be on the status of Aleksander Barkov, who was knocked out of Game 2 via a hit from Brandon Hagel; Hagel was assessed a five-minute major penalty for the play and suspended for Game 3.
Tampa Bay needs its stars and its scoring depth to get rolling to charge back into this series, with just two goals total in two games. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has not been up to his typical, superhuman standards thus far, allowing seven goals on 39 shots (.821 save percentage).
In Stanley Cup playoff history, teams that start 2-0 in a best-of-seven series have won 86% of the time; that number rises to 98% if a team starts 3-0.
If nothing else, this series has been a unique one from a starting-time perspective; each of the first four games will have had a different scheduled start time once the puck is dropped Saturday — 10 p.m. ET for Game 1, 11 p.m. ET for Game 2, 9 p.m. ET for Game 3 and 4 p.m. ET for this one.
Most observers didn’t believe the Wild were going to win this series. Nor did many predict that Minnesota players would be all over the scoring leaderboard midway through Round 1. Kirill Kaprizov is tied for the playoff scoring lead with Adrian Kempe and Cam Fowler (seven points), and is tied with teammate Matt Boldy for the goal-scoring lead, with four. The current playoff assists leader? Wild blueliner Jared Spurgeon.
This has been an uncharacteristically rough opening round for Adin Hill. He’s allowed 10 goals on 57 shots, generating a .825 save percentage and 3.78 goals-against average. Those rates were .932 and 2.17, respectively, in Hill’s 16 games played during the Knights’ 2023 Stanley Cup run.
While “Playoff” Tomas Hertl has shown up this series — to the tune of two goals and an assist — some of the Knights’ other offensive standbys have been quiet. Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev — who combined for 212 points in the regular season — all have a goose egg thus far.
The Maple Leafs have been led by a consistently strong performance of their Core Four of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares; the quartet leads Toronto in scoring through three games. Perhaps a narrative is being rewritten before our eyes, after years of playoff disappointment for that group?
One specific area where Toronto has been dominant is the power play; their 55.6% conversion rate is tops in the league this postseason (and makes up, somewhat, for a penalty kill that is just 77.8% effective).
The Senators have had five different goal scorers this series, including Brady Tkachuk, who has been giving his all in his first playoff experience. Ottawa’s captain has two goals — and four penalty minutes, as he has kept himself in the mix whenever the action has gotten rowdier.
Will Ottawa stick with Linus Ullmark in goal for Game 4? The veteran has an .815 save percentage through the first three games — and an .874 mark in his postseason career.
Game 3 was all about the return of Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog after an absence of 1,032 days. Landeskog skated 13:16 in the game, but did not record a point or a shot on goal.
While other teams are generating historic numbers on the power play this postseason, the Avs have struggled to a 15.4% conversion rate (fourth worst). This is in stark contrast to the regular season, when the Avs’ 24.8% rate was eighth in the league.
Tyler Seguin‘s overtime goal sealed the deal for Dallas in Game 3. it was just the second OT game winner in his career, after a span of 13 years (April 22, 2012).
The other good news on the Dallas front is that Mikko Rantanen — former Av, who was acquired on March 7 — finally picked up his first point of the series, an assist on the OT game winner. Have the floodgates opened?
Arda’s three stars from Friday night
1. The Oilers-Kings series LA up 2-1 | 30 goals in three games
The first three games have been bonkers. Game 1 almost had an all-timer comeback, then the Kings rocked Edmonton in Game 2, while Game 3 saw multiple lead changes, quick back-to-back goals, a failed coaches challenge by L.A. on an Edmonton goal — which led to an Oilers’ power-play goal to take the lead. Just incredible.
Nemec scored the overtime winner in Newark to win the game for the Devils over the Canes — and avoid going down 0-3 in the series. This came after stints in the AHL this season, and being a healthy scratch earlier in the series.
“Goal” Caufield had a goal and an assist in Montreal’s emphatic 6-3 win over Washington in Game 3.
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Cole Caufield scores with a one-timer for Montreal
Cole Caufield scores on a one-timer to give the Canadiens the lead late in the second period.
The Bell Centre was electric for the Canadiens’ first home game in quite some time — and the fans were sent home quite happy on Friday night after a wild game. The two teams traded goals through most of the first two periods before Cole Caufield put Montreal up one at the end of the second — and a brawl ensued that spilled into the Washington bench. Although Alex Ovechkin scored 2:39 into the third to tie the game 3-3, the Habs poured it on thereafter with three straight goals, sending the “Olé!” chants to unforeseen decibel levels. Recap.
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Christian Dvorak helps Canadiens regain the lead
Christian Dvorak finds the net in the third period to help the Canadiens to retake the lead vs. the Capitals.
Down 0-2 in the series, the Devils went up 2-0 in their first game back home, on goals from Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer. But a pair of third-period, power-play goals — from Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho — knotted things up, and the game went to overtime. Scoreless after one extra period, the game was ended by Simon Nemec, the second overall pick in the 2022 draft, who had been a healthy scratch previously in the series. Recap.
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Simon Nemec’s wrister wins it in 2OT for the Devils
Simon Nemec finds the winning goal as the Devils outlast the Hurricanes in double overtime.
It takes a full-team effort to get up off the proverbial canvas when down 0-2 in a series, and that’s just what the Oilers got on Friday. Ten different Oilers hit the scoresheet in this one, including superstars like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard, as well players further down the lineup like Connor Brown and Evander Kane. The Oilers also made the switch in goal to Calvin Pickard for this game, and he responded with 24 saves on 28 shots. On the Kings’ side, Adrian Kempe had his fourth goal and fifth assist of the playoffs, putting him into first in the points race and tied for first in the goals race. Recap.
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Connor McDavid’s empty-netter secures Game 3 for the Oilers
Connor McDavid notches the empty-netter to secure a Game 3 win for the Oilers.
NEWARK, N.J. — Simon Nemec hasn’t had an ideal start to his NHL career. But in Game 3 of the New Jersey Devils‘ Stanley Cup playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes, he finally had his career highlight.
The 21-year-old defenseman scored an unassisted goal at 2:36 of double overtime on Friday night to give the Devils a 3-2 win and new life, cutting the Hurricanes’ series lead to 2-1.
In the process, Nemec, the No. 2 pick in the 2022 NHL draft, had the most impactful moment of his pro career with his first playoff goal.
“I was so happy,” he said. “Amazing feeling. It’s been a tough season for me, and that’s a really big win for us.”
A native of Slovakia, Nemec spent his first season after the draft in the American Hockey League. He split time between the AHL and the Devils in Year 2, thrust into action because of injuries to the New Jersey defense. He split time between the NHL and the minors again this season. Nemec has played 87 games in the NHL, with five goals and 18 assists while skating to a minus-17.
He was a frequent healthy scratch in New Jersey, including Game 1 on Sunday, and his lackluster play caused many to wonder if Nemec would live up to his lofty draft position. Nemec was last on the Devils in goals above replacement at minus-8.7, according to Evolving Hockey.
Thanks to injuries to defensemen Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon, Nemec was called upon in Game 2 against Carolina and was back in the lineup for Game 3, in which the Devils lost defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic to injury after just 10 shifts. That injury, plus the multiple overtimes, meant massive increases in ice time for veterans such as Brian Dumoulin (36:29) and Brett Pesce (32:25), as well as more responsibility for Nemec.
“You just need guys to step up at the right times,” Dumoulin said. “He knew he was going to be going out there, we’re going to be relying on him, and we needed him. You could see that he took that moment. He wasn’t scared of it, and he took the reins of it.”
Nemec said the overtime goal, which beat Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen (34 saves), was the kind of boost he needs in his career.
“Yeah, it helps me a lot,” he said. “I feel like my confidence is back the last couple games. I’m just trying to play my game and do this stuff. I have to play offense a little bit, too, so my confidence is higher, and I just feel good about myself.”
Devils coach Sheldon Keefe admitted that he dreamed about defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler, who returned to the lineup for the first time since Feb. 4 and played 27:09, being the Game 3 hero.
“But if I was really thinking, I would have said, ‘Wouldn’t this be something if the young guy who just stepped up so big for us here, if he ended the game?'” Keefe said.
The message the coach gave his team in the overtime intermissions was one of aggressiveness. That apparently wasn’t lost on Nemec.
“We’ve got to go win this hockey game. We don’t want to sit back, we don’t want this game to go on forever,” Keefe said. “Credit Nemo with doing that. To have the mindset to do it, not just sitting back and conserving energy. He was on the front foot. You love to see it and love to see him get rewarded.”
Game 4 of the series will be Sunday afternoon in New Jersey.