Derrick Lewis Believes Francis Ngannou Looked Scared at UFC 226

Derrick Lewis believes Francis Ngannou had fear in his eyes when they fought last month.

In the co-main event of UFC 226, Lewis and Ngannou shared the Octagon inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a highly anticipated heavyweight tilt as both fighters have thunderous knockout power and had some bad blood brewing. The fight was a dud, and Lewis ended up winning via unanimous decision.

There are a few factors as to why Lewis vs. Ngannou didn’t live up to expectations. First, there’s “The Black Beast’s” lingering back issues which didn’t allow him to engage as much as he had hoped to. Then there’s the mental game with Ngannou, who admitted his loss to Stipe Miocic made him gun-shy. During a recent appearance on “The MMA Hour,” Lewis said he did sense that Ngannou was afraid to throw strikes:

“To me, whenever he stepped inside the Octagon, he looked scared from the get-go. He wasn’t the same guy that I saw at the weigh-ins. Like, his facial expressions and his emotions and everything, it wasn’t the same. So all of that right there, that threw me off in the fight too, because I didn’t believe that he was really that scared of me, but the look in his eyes, it really did show that he was scared.”

Lewis is set to do battle with Alexander Volkov in the co-main event of UFC 229. That’s the big event that will be headlined by a lightweight title fight between champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor. It’ll be held inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Oct. 6. Stick with MMA News for the latest additions and potential changes to the UFC 229 card.