Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane face off on Saturday for the heavyweight interim title belt for the main event of UFC 265 at the Toyota Center in Houston.
Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis comes into this fight with a 25-7 record overall and coming into this fight he has won four fights in a row. Lewis's last fight was against Curtis Blaydes in February of 2021 and it was early in the second round he finished the fight by knockout. Lewis is a fighter who has knockout power, and he can finish the fight at any time. Don’t ever count Lewis out, because that’s exactly when he will swoop in for the victory. Lewis is averaging 2.59 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 2.19 significant strikes per minute. Lewis is averaging 0.52 takedowns every 15 minutes, but he is successful on only 28 percent of his takedown attempts. Lewis also stops 54 percent of opponents takedown attempts. Lewis is going to have the crowd behind him in this fight.
Cyril Gane comes into this fight with a 9-0 record overall and since coming into the UFC he has won six fights. Gane’s last fight was against Alexander Volkov in June of 2021 and that was a fight he won by unanimous decision. Gane outstruck Volkov 135-115 in that fight, and that led to the unanimous decision victory. Gane is averaging 5.13 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 2.60 significant strikes per minute. Gane is also averaging 0.82 takedowns every 15 minutes, but he is successful on only 21 percent of takedown attempts. In this fight, Gane needs to avoid the big punches of Lewis and not just assume if he is up in this fight, that he is going to come away with the victory.
The only thing that really concerns me about Lewis is his conditioning. Each of the last two wins by Gane has been by decision, and I don’t think Lewis is going to be concerned about his knockout power. Look for Lewis to land one of his power punches and the lights are going to go out for Gane. Back Lewis to win this fight.
AUTHOR: Shane Mickle
