Derrick Lewis and Serghei Spivac hope the second time's a charm. Lewis and Spivac were scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night on Nov. 19, but Lewis was forced to pull out of the event due to illness just hours before entering the Octagon. The ranked heavyweights will give it a second go at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Lewis (26-1, 1 NC) finds himself rebuilding at another crossroads in his career. The fan-favorite slugger looks to steady himself following consecutive knockout losses to Serghei Pavlovich and Tai Tuivasa. It is not the first time that Lewis has turned the clock on a career decline -- or even the first time he was stopped in back-to-back fights -- but losing to Pavlovich and Tuivasa in 55 and 100 seconds, respectively, does not bode well for him.
"I don't blame them," Lewis told reporters at Wednesday's media day when asked about people not taking him seriously. "They felt like I wasn't taking myself serious, the fight game serious. I gotta go out there and prove to everyone that I can still do this and still be in the top five."
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Spivac (15-3) plans to leap into the top 10 off of Lewis' enormous back. Spivac experienced unsteadiness in his early UFC run but has become a reliable finisher as of late. Spivac enters his first UFC main event on a 4-1 run with three TKOs and consecutive finishes of Augusto Sakai and Greg Hardy. A win for Spivac will continue the trend of fresh faces taking over the heavyweight division with Ciryl Gane, Pavlovich, Tuivasa and Tom Aspinall populating the top six.
The undercard is lacking in big names as this card is meant for the Asian markets. The Korean Zombie was originally expected to headline this card and it was to take place in South Korea. But when he was forced to withdraw with an injury, plans shifted this event back to the Apex facility in Las Vegas, but it will still have a start time friendly to that side of the world.
Below is the rest of the fight card for Saturday night with the latest odds from Caesars Sportsbook before we get to a prediction and pick on the main event.
UFC Fight Night card, odds
| Favorite | Underdog | Weightclass |
|---|---|---|
| Serghei Spivac -230 | Derrick Lewis +190 | Heavyweight |
| Da-un Jung -240 | Devin Clark +200 | Light heavyweight |
| Marcin Tybura -130 | Blagoy Ivanov +110 | Heavyweight |
| Doo-ho Choi -190 | Kyle Nelson +160 | Featherweight |
| Yusaku Kinoshita -330 | Adam Fugitt +260 | Welterweight |
UFC Fight Night viewing information
Date: Feb. 5 | Start time: 1 a.m. ET (main card)
Location: UFC Apex -- Las Vegas, Nevada
TV channel: ESPN | Stream: fuboTV (try for free)
Prediction
Derrick Lewis vs. Serghei Spivac: Lewis appears to be on the downslide and Spivac is putting the pieces together, the betting odds reflect that. Fortunately for Lewis, power is the last thing to go and "The Black Beast" has buckets of it. Lewis' reaction time and ability to absorb strikes are beginning to wane. That was painfully clear in the Pavlovich and Tuivasa fights. Spivac is not a severe one-punch threat, which should benefit Lewis, but he can do some serious damage once he gets on top. This is where the fight gets interesting. Lewis has a paltry 55% takedown defense, but every shot on Lewis is a roll of the dice. Just ask Curtis Blaydes, who turned stiff as a board after eating a nasty uppercut. Lewis also possesses an almost comical ability to push heavyweights off of him and stand back up. This may be the most motivated Lewis we have seen in quite some time. His lingering back issues are always concerning, but he heads into Fight Night far leaner than usual. It'll be interesting to see how his new weight affects his speed and power. Spivac's two career KO losses came in Round 1, so we'll take the three-peat. Lewis via KO1
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