Derrick Lewis credits Francis Ngannou for lucrative UFC contract

Derrick Lewis shared the octagon with Francis Ngannou in a fight both have admitted they’d like to forget at UFC 226 in July 2018, but Lewis said Ngannou—without even knowing—helped him out years later.

Lewis is set to face Jhonata Diniz at UFC Edmonton this Saturday. Following his memorable knockout win over Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC 291 in July 2023, Lewis re-signed with the promotion. With Ngannou signing with PFL and negotiating guaranteed big paydays for his opponent, Lewis saw that as a negotiating tool.

“Francis played the role of helping me get this contract that I got right now,” Lewis told MMA Fighting. “Because, you know, the negotiations, I said, ‘Man, look what they’re doing over there, I could be over there getting that. It’s so weird. I would like to stay here.’

“So, you know, I ain’t gonna say too much.”

“The Black Beast” stopped Rodrigo Nascimento in the main event of UFC St. Louis in his most recent outing in May. Lewis was originally slated to face Alexandr Romanov, but the promotion shifted him to Diniz for what will likely be a striking battle.

Now that Lewis has a lucrative contract, he hopes to continue fighting as frequently as he did in the past. He can’t complain about the money he’s getting, even with the potential of getting millions to face Ngannou in PFL during his brief free agency period.

“Yes, because it was there, so now I’m here,” Lewis said. “So, you know, now they’re trying to space my fights out. I said, ‘No, don’t space them out. Come on, give me them three, or four fights that I wanted to give them before.’”

Ngannou recently made his MMA return at PFL Battle of the Giants earlier this month and knocked out Renan Ferreira in the first round. Ngannou battled with a heavy heart following the passing of his 15-month-old son Kobe. As a father, himself, Lewis couldn’t help but feel for his past foe.

“I heard, I read an article about what happened,” Lewis said. “It’s pretty sad his son passed away like being one-year-old at that too, because at one they are already responsive, like talking and moving around, walking and stuff like that. So to lose a son that early, like at that age, I’m sure it’s very traumatic.”

While Lewis doesn’t watch a lot of MMA in his free time, his coach showed him Ngannou’s big finish of Ferreira.

“Oh, it was good,” Lewis said of Ngannou’s performance. “It was good, I didn’t watch the fight [live]. I don’t think nobody did, I heard they only got 10,000 pay-per-view buys, but it’s good [for Francis].”