After getting released from the UFC in early 2024, Devin Clark — like many other fighters — signed with the Global Fight League for his next MMA chapter. The 17-fight octagon veteran even had his first fight booked against past UFC title challenger Thiago Santos in May. But the fight, or any other event, didn’t happen.

Now, Clark’s next MMA chapter is a full circle one as he faces fellow ex-UFC fighter Bevon Lewis in a heavyweight matchup this Friday at LFA 214. “Brown Bear” gets to compete in his hometown of Sioux Falls, S.D. Additionally, Clark signed to the UFC after competing for RFA, which is now merged into what fans now know as LFA.

When it comes to the GFL situation, many fighters involved have publicly chosen the side of “it’s never going to happen,” or “there’s still something here.” Clark chose to look at things a bit differently.

“Honestly, I forgot about it,” Clark told MMA Fighting. “Yeah, since I’m doing this and I’ve had other things on the horizon. We even entertained [a BKFC fight], stuff like that, and then this LFA opportunity popped up.

“So yeah, I definitely just kind of forgot about it and haven’t really thought about it since, until now.”

Friday marks Clark’s first fight since losing a decision in his final UFC bout to Marcin Prachnio 18 months ago. Since then, Clark’s construction and handyman business has taken off, which has kept him extremely busy while still training and honing his skills in the gym. The 35-year-old is also coaching wrestling at Augustana University in Sioux Falls.

After a UFC run that consisted on mostly light heavyweight bouts, Clark is happy to go on a heavyweight journey in the sport.

“I can make 205 no problem, but if I’m not, yeah, I’m comfortable at heavyweight,” Clark said. “I’m weighing around 250 pounds, in pretty good shape, and I have all my power, strength. I’m more durable when I’m not cutting weight.

“When I was fighting 205, yeah, I lose a little bit of muscle and I start from 240, then I have to wind down in camp to 220. So half of the camp [I’m] spending kind of watching my weight, losing weight, and then we water load or water cut from there, and I’m happy at heavyweight.”

With Clark getting set to compete in his home city for the first time in nearly a decade, he faces Lewis, who looks for his first win since his lone UFC victory in April 2020. In his most recent bout, Lewis was stopped by Julius Walker, who ended up getting his UFC shot three months later.

Clark holds eight UFC victories throughout his career, and coincidentally, one of the most memorable wins took place in the one fight he had that didn’t take place at 205.

“If you look at the stats, I had one knockout in the UFC and that was the one time that I fought at heavyweight,” Clark explained. “So it’s like I’m kind of hanging on that a little bit. But I had full camp and it was kind of weird because at the time it was kind of a short-notice deal with William Knight and we had to change opponents. He stepped up, but he said he can only do it at heavyweight. So we’re like, all right, and I knew he was a light heavyweight. So I’m like, ‘Oh, he can’t be that big.’

“We get to weigh-in day and I’m in the back. I haven’t weighed in yet. and I hear him up there and they’re like, ‘251 pounds.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, OK. I was off a little bit.’ And I had already started coming down with my weight in camp, so I was weighing about 223 is what I think I weighed in at. So I was definitely a smaller fighter, but I still wasn’t cutting weight, so I think that helped a lot.”