The UFC heavyweight division is crying out for some new contenders as Derrick Lewis continues to maintain his spot in the top 10.
This past weekend, the premier promotion returned to Tennessee for UFC Nashville, headlined by heavyweight contenders Derrick Lewis and Tallison Teixeira.
‘The Black Beast’ went on to make relatively easy work of the Brazilian giant, finishing him with 35 seconds left of the first round, despite the stoppage being somewhat controversial.
Bizarrely following his win, Lewis shared a phone call with the U.S. President Donald Trump whilst in the Octagon celebrating his win.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLCDana White on how close Lewis is to a heavyweight title shot
A few weeks ago, it was finally announced by the UFC boss Dana White that the heavyweight saga including Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones had finally come to an end after Jones announced his retirement.
Since then, things have changed slightly as Jones has already teased a potential comeback to the sport, revealing that he is already back in the testing pool.
Despite that, with Aspinall now reigning as the undisputed champion, he wants to keep the heavyweight division moving and will likely not wait for ‘Bones’ to return and will defend his title against someone else.
And with that, following Lewis’ win on Saturday, White has admitted that the former title challenger is potentially only one more win away from securing another title shot.
“I think that’s the way the heavyweight division has always been, I mean, these guys don’t have to cut (weight), some of them have to cut but they don’t have to cut a lot of weight,” White began to explain during the post-fight press conference.
“A fight can turn with one punch, whoever lands that big shot, and they were both trying to land them and he got him, I thought the stoppage was a little fast, you know, but it is what it is,” White continued.
Former UFC champ claims Aspinall vs Lewis could happen next
As we have seen in the past in a lot of situations, timing is everything when it comes to who is granted a title shot and who isn’t.
Former UFC champion Chris Weidman believes the UFC could make the fight between Aspinall and Lewis next, and it would act as a placeholder for Aspinall vs Jones later next year at the White House.
White confirmed that plans to do a UFC show at the White House next year on July 4 are legit and that he will be flying out to have a meeting with Trump next week to discuss the logistics of the event.