Derrick Lewis was expected to face Fabricio Werdum at UFC 216 this past Saturday night, but only hours before his scheduled fight he was pulled from the card due to injury. Prior to UFC 216, Lewis had spoken openly about some injuries he’d been dealing with. In fact, he nearly quit the fight game because it.
“No, it’s my lower back, not my leg,” Lewis said following his loss to Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 110. “My leg is good, yeah, it’s just a long-time time injury. I hurt it back in 2011, and it has just been hurting all week.”
“This was probably my last fight, you know,” Lewis continued. “I’m getting married next week, and I don’t like putting my family through all of this so this would be my last fight. Most likely it’s my last fight in the UFC.”
At the time Lewis was pulled from his fight with Werdum, the exact cause and extent of his injury was unknown. However, it seems that Lewis is suffering from the same back problems that he complained about following his loss to Hunt. He sent a text to Ariel Helwani letting him know what exactly forced him out of his scheduled fight at UFC 216.
“I can’t move,” Lewis wrote. “I’m feeling the same pain in my back that I felt before the Mark Hunt fight.”
Spoke to Derrick Lewis via text.
"I can't move," Lewis wrote. "I’m feeling the same pain in my back that I felt before the Mark Hunt fight."
Dealing with two bulging discs. His team tells me he tried his best to fight through it. He's devastated. More coming to @MMAFighting.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 7, 2017
