Derrick Lewis nearly welcomed Rico Verhoeven to the UFC.
Next month, Lewis makes his 31st trip to the octagon when he takes on surging heavyweight contender Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC 324. But according to Lewis, that was not always the plan. Speaking recently on The Beast and the Cowboy, Lewis revealed that he’s been angling for a fight since the summer, and the UFC had a specific one in mind before it fell apart: former Glory kickboxing heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven.
“Shit, I’ve been trying to get a fight damn near every month since July,” Lewis said. “The fight ended in 30 seconds. I thought they were going to give me something quick. Nah. They talking about, ‘We’ve got something big for you. Don’t worry, just sit and wait.’ I’ve been waiting, and nothing happened! They’re talking about, ‘It’s going to be something big. You’re going to like it.’ They’re talking about some ‘Paramount, in January.’ I’m like, man!
“Then they were talking about against who. First, it was supposed to be some dude from GLORY Kickboxing, the champion. What’s the dude’s name? I’m terrible with names. [Rico] Verhoeven. It was supposed to be against him, then he turned the fight down.”
Still only 36 years old, Verhoeven is regarded as one of the greatest kickboxers of all time and was the longest-reigning Glory heavyweight champion, with 13 successful title defenses to his name. In November, Verhoeven announced he was vacating his title after not re-signing with Glory. Since then, Verhoeven has been rumored to be in talks for several high-profile boxing or MMA fights, though none have come to fruition, and it remains to be seen what his next move will be.
For Lewis, he wasn’t particularly focused on one opponent, just getting back into the cage. “The Black Beast” said that after Verhoeven was off the table, his team lobbied for a rematch with Sergei Pavlovich, who knocked Lewis out at UFC 277 in 2022, but instead, Cortes-Acosta stepped up.
”Then we were trying to get the Russian dude back, Sergei [Pavlovich],” Lewis said. “… But he said no. Then the Dominican dude, he accepted the fight, so I said let’s get it.”
Lewis is currently on a two-fight winning streak, having knocked out Tallison Teixeira and Rodrigo Nascimento to add to his record 16 UFC knockouts. He’ll look to extend that to 17 against “Salsa Boy” on Jan. 24 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Mistake. Jake Paul admits biggest mistake against Anthony Joshua, trashes Francis Ngannou.
Reaction. ‘He was not there to win’: Matt Brown argues Jake Paul doesn’t deserve respect for Anthony Joshua fight.
Reaction. Luke Rockhold: Andrew Tate ‘didn’t look like he had fought before’ in ‘horrible’ fight at Misfits Mania.
Fight. Manager: Andrei Arlovski ‘absolutely accepts’ Jack Doherty’s fight offer.
Viewers. Anthony Joshua’s knockout of Jake Paul watched by 33 million people on Netflix.
Beef. Ilia Topuria blasts Arman Tsarukyan over UFC 311 withdrawal, Tsarukyan responds.
Gone. Rinat Fakhretdinov, 2 others no longer on UFC roster.
Out. Dakota Ditcheva knocked out of PFL Dubai with injury.
Most memorable UFC moments from 2025.
Nakisa Bidarian saying Jake wants Tommy Fury.
Mighty Mouse talking about Tony Ferguson in Misfits.
Alex Pereira in Istanbul. Basically an ad, but it’s Poatan in the wild.
Between the Link, Festivus Edition
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
Georgia in the house. Ilia Topuria and Merab Dvalishvili driving around.
Sean Strickland and Michel Pereira sparring hard.
Also, Sean Strickland and Chris Curtis are mending fences.
OK, that first goal is actually pretty decent.
Merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate!
As you may have guess, there will be no Morning Report tomorrow since it’s Christmas, and we all won’t have one on Friday AKA boxing day. We should be back next week for another light week in the lead up to New Years.
If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook.
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