Morning Report: Derrick Lewis says he’s hoping to fight Francis Ngannou ‘before he turns 50 on us’

Last month, Derrick Lewis got back on the winning track with an epic, third-round come-from-behind knockout of Marcin Tybura at UFC Fight Night: Austin. The win earned Lewis a Performance of the Night bonus and moved Lewis up to sixth in the official rankings but he’s also hoping it got him a fight with fellow heavyweight standout Francis Ngannou.

Ngannou and Lewis have been exchanges barbs in the media for the last year but with Ngannou being fast-tracked to a title shot and Lewis being knocked out by Mark Hunt last summer, a fight between the two has yet to materialize. Now though, Lewis is coming off of an impressive knockout and Ngannou was just dominated by heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, leaving the door open for the heavyweight division’s two most exciting young strikers get together and throw hands. That’s what Lewis wants, though he wouldn’t characterize Ngannou as “young.”

“Yeah hopefully we can get something done this year man,” Lewis told the Slip n’ Dip podcastrecently. “Hopefully we can get something before he turns 50 on us.”

Lewis has been pursuing a fight with Ngannou for some time now and even said before his bout with Tybura that he would call out Ngannou after his win. Unfortunately for Lewis, Ngannou doesn’t appear to be in any rush to fight “The Black Beast.” After coming up short in his title shot at UFC 220, Ngannou announced that he would be taking some time off of MMA. Lewis is okay with that though, saying that he’d be happy to fight anyone ahead of him in the rankings, so long as the UFC paid him for it.

“Usually after every fight I tell [the UFC], ‘I would like to fight this guy,’” Lewis said. “I try to pick the toughest guys out there. I don’t try to pick anybody that’s behind me, I try to pick everybody that’s ahead of me in the rankings. So it’s the top five, top six. I try to pick one of those guys that’s available. I told them Francis, I told them [Alistair] Overeem, even a rematch with Mark [Hunt]. [Curtis] Blaydes. Fabricio [Werdum].”

Of the fighters mentioned, Blaydes and Overeem are in discussions to fight at UFC 225 and Hunt knocked Lewis out just last year. Werdum, however, is fighting Alexander Volkov next week at UFC London and should he get past the former Bellator champion, a fight with Lewis could make sense while Miocic defends the title against Daniel Cormier. Lewis does not particularly care, just so long as he can get back in the cage early this summer, because, as he puts it, MMA is his job.

“I would like to fight hopefully in May or June,” Lewis said. [The International Fight Week card] doesn’t matter, I’d really like to fight earlier than that. . .

“There’s nothing I really want to accomplish. I already set my family up pretty good right now. I don’t care if I ever fight for the belt or get the belt. It’s a job to me, basically. I’m not trying to be the best fighter in the world or nothing like that. I don’t come in trying to think I am the best fighter. I don’t care about none of that. It’s just a job to me.”