THE UFC HAS finally found a high-profile title bout to headline its return to Madison Square Garden on Saturday, 3 November. The organisation has also lost the most eagerly-anticipated fight that had already been scheduled for the card.
Derrick Lewis, one of the big winners on last weekend’s UFC 229 bill, will perform a four-week turnaround to challenge reigning heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier in the UFC 230 main event at the famous New York arena.
However, the lightweight meeting of Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz has been scratched. ESPN were the first of several US media outlets to report overnight that Poirier has been forced to withdraw from the match-up due to an undisclosed injury.
With an official announcement yet to be made by the UFC, it is not yet known if a replacement opponent will be sought to ensure that Diaz remains on the card.
That blow is somewhat cushioned by the long-awaited confirmation of a main event, with Lewis stepping in on relatively short notice to compete in his first UFC title bout.
Lewis (21-5) substantially increased his following on Saturday night with a significant win over the hotly-fancied Alexander Volkov in Las Vegas on the pay-per-view card which was headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov’s victory over Conor McGregor.
A 33-year-old native of Louisiana, Lewis completed a comeback win by knocking out Volkov with just 11 seconds of the fight remaining, before earning plenty of new fans with his colourful post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.
Cormier (21-1), who previously declared himself unavailable for the Madison Square Garden date due to an ongoing hand injury, will nevertheless make the first defence of the 265-pound title he won from Stipe Miocic in July.
The 39-year-old, also a native of Louisiana, knocked out Miocic at UFC 226 to become just the second fighter in history to hold two UFC titles simultaneously. He is also currently the organisation’s light-heavyweight champion.
Cormier had been expected to sit out until an expected heavyweight title clash with Brock Lesnar in 2019, but instead he’ll return to headline a card for which the UFC has struggled to confirm a main attraction.
As recently as last week, they were seemingly pressing ahead with a bout for the vacant women’s flyweight belt between Valentina Shevchenko and Sijara Eubanks. Those plans have subsequently been scrapped, with Eubanks taking to Twitter to express her anger.
Instead, as originally planned, Shevchenko and Joanna Jedrzejczyk will fight for that title at UFC 231 in Toronto on 8 December. Jedrzejczyk had briefly been ejected from the equation after refusing to sacrifice five weeks of her training camp in order to accommodate the UFC by bringing the fight forward to 3 November.
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Kevin Lee would be a great replacement….
This is a terrible fight for Lewis, he’ll be on his backside for the evening. Won’t be able to handle Cormier’s high tempo.
@The Irish Pain: he shouldn’t even be in it ,, he has a frigd up back that fights through extreme pain anyway if I was him I would have held of he’s a way better fighter than the volkov/ngannou fight ,, there just making him a warm up fight I hope he knocks dc from the sandles not because I don’t respect dc but , volkov is an excellent heavyweight and got caught if he won do you think him or Dana would have taken volkov cormier I doubt especially when imo stipe should be in there , best heavyweight UFC has had , great take down defence ,, he obviously won’t have taken any other fight unless cain stepped back in ,,he was always willing to fight stipe but def won’t ,, fight like a spit in the face Dana white never liked miocic ..
@Patrick Dara Kelly: what did punctuation ever do to you?
Imagine if Lewis won…. Would probably be the biggest shock ever in the ufc
@Michael Gaynor: there’s been bigger shocks, with Lewis he has so much power in his hands that he always has a punchers chance.
This just isn’t an interesting fight. Lewis openly admitted he wasn’t ready for 5 rounds. And the matchup itself is a potential snooze fest…DC will lay and pray, Lewis will be completely exhausted buy the 3rd or 4th and may very well die of a heart attack in there!
They must be throwing some amount of cash at them.
@Yzo Sirrius: donald trump might give him inspiration beforehand tho
How do they just ignore the medical suspension? Just because it’s different jurisdictions?
This is terrible news
Respect to Cormier, he doesn’t need this fight and said his desired opponents are Lesner for money and Jon Jones for redemption. With Poieier dropping out himself and Lewis could very well have saved this card.
@MrPoopyButthole: I don’t know. I think he’s going to win easy and there’s a very little percentage chance of losing. He’s got a nice tune up for Lesner for his first defence of his title. Sort of a win-win for me.
@EnKy: I agree, extremely unlikely that he loses given that Lewis was 2nd best for all but 30 seconds against Volkov. Would have thought he’d stick to his plan of 2 more fights with big paydays and retire by 40 but hey plans change. Hopefully they can get Diaz a replacement fight and all of a a sudden 230 looks a great card. Jacare, Brunson, Weidman, Rockhold, Adesanya.
Kevin lee and Nate I like that !, think hes most underated lightweight and I think if it wasn’t for staph infection against ferguson different outcome might have happened ,, most realistic match up to beat khabib big kid better on his feet excellent wrestler in saying that ferguson of his back would be interesting,the UFC should be ashamed they didn’t give stipe the rematch he wanted ,, gave it too Lewis because he’s trending when arguably he should be medically suspended due to his back number 1and number 2 he took a good beaten ,can’t see how he gets past medical only a month,,
Dana white and ufc want to keep the belt with there love child cormier so he faces brock what’s the point in rankinkings , lee Diaz would have been interesting ,,
What about mcgreggor Diaz in New York