Lewis: ‘Overeem Turned Me Down Three Times’

MMA News

Lewis: ‘Overeem Turned Me Down Three Times’

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Derrick Lewis will face off against Aleksei Oleinik this Sat. night (Aug. 8, 2020) in the main event of UFC Vegas 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada in a pivotal Heavyweight bout. And while “Black Beast” respects the matchup, he’s always wanted a crack at Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes.

But according to the heavy-handed bruiser, “The Reem” has turned him down multiple times when offered the fight, and UFC matchmakers have denied his request to fight Blaydes, too. He revealed as much during the virtual media day when asked to talk about “Razor’s” claims that he is ducking him.

“I don’t understand what he’s talking about. This will be my twentieth UFC fight and I have fought all of the tough guys in the Octagon and he’s now just coming up on the radar. I don’t even know how many guys he’s had in the UFC for him to talk like he could take me,” he said.

“I already fought just about everybody in the Top 10. The only guys I haven’t fought are Overeem and him. I’ve been asking to fight Curtis and Overeem. Overeem turned me down like three times in this past month before Oleinik popped up. And I asked for Blaydes, and if he don’t believe it he can ask Mick.”

Lewis and Overeem have a little bit of a beef going back a few years. It all started when Overeem criticized Lewis’ sense of humor, claiming he wanted to put hands on him, too. In rebuttal, “Black Beast” mocked “The Reem” after he was knocked out by Jairzinho Rozenstruik.

As for Blaydes, the top 265-pound contender has gone on record saying that he’s been wanting to throw bombs against Lewis, but UFC matchmakers have refused to make the fight in an efforts to protect “Black Beast” from taking an “L.”

Blaydes (No. 3) and Lewis (No. 4) seem to be on a collision course should “Black Beast” take out Oleinik this weekend in “Sin City” since Francis Ngannou is in line to face the winner of Daniel Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic.

As for Overeem, he is still in the mix and is scheduled to face Augusto Sakai in the main event of an upcoming UFC Fight Night event on Sept. 5, 2020. Blaydes, meanwhile, scored a technical knockout win over Overeem at UFC 225 back in 2018.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 6 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” undercard bouts at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN+ main card start time at 9 p.m. ET.

For the complete UFC Vegas 6 fight card and line up click here.

https://www.mmamania.com/2020/8/6/21357890/ufc-derrick-lewis-denies-ducking-curtis-blaydes-alistair-overeem-turned-him-down-three-times-mma