Derrick Lewis returns to the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas this Saturday for UFC 271, his first fight in the arena since last August.
That last visit was UFC 265, where Lewis suffered a humbling TKO loss against Ciryl Gane in an interim heavyweight title bout. More than shattering Lewis’ title hopes, that defeat also crushed a celebration that represented far more than a championship belt.
“When I fought Gane, that day was the same day I was released from prison,” said Lewis, who served three-and-half years in prison nearly two decades ago, a sentence caused by violating his probation after he was charged with assaulting a member of the Ku Klux Klan. “That would have been my moment to go all the way from the bottom to all the way to the top. That’s why I put so much pressure on myself.
