Lewis Vs. Spivak Rebooked As UFC Seoul Moves To Apex

UFC’s Feb. 4, 2023, event has been moved from Seoul to Las Vegas and now has a new Heavyweight main event.

Derrick Lewis was looking to get back to his winning ways at UFC Vegas 65 after a 1-3 skid. Unfortunately, last-minute stomach issues forced Lewis to pull out of the fight just hours before the bout was set to take place.

Indeed, Lewis was rushed to the hospital on fight day because of those stomach issues, and was subsequently cleared and released later that night. Little else is known about what exactly happened, but we’re happy to hear it wasn’t serious enough to keep “The Black Beast” hospitalized for an extended period.

Now, Lewis has a return date after that disappointing experience.

UFC has just announced that the Derrick Lewis vs. Sergei Spivac match-up has been rebooked for a “Fight Night”-themed event planned for Feb. 4, 2023. Lewis and Spivak will serve as the main event for the show, which will take place inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This is a big shuffle for the Feb. 4 card, which was originally set to be held in Seoul, South Korea, with “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung as the headliner. Unfortunately, Jung injured his shoulder in training and was unable to compete at that date. As a result, the entire plan to travel to Korea has been postponed, and UFC Seoul is now UFC Fight Night: “Lewis vs. Spivac.”

As you’d expect given the situation, the rest of the card is currently loaded up with Asian fighters from UFC’s roster: Choi Doo-ho, Kim Ji-yeon, Jung Da-un, Park Jun-yon, Loma Lookboonmee, Yusaku Kinoshita and Tatsuro Taira are all set to compete. The Road to UFC tournament finals are still listed as being part of this card as well.

After an iffy start in UFC, Spivak has gone 5-1 over his last six bouts with his only loss being a technical knockout to Tom Aspinall in Sept. 2021. His last two wins over Greg Hardy and Augusto Sakai were technical knockout finishes, too.

Bookies had the Spivak vs. Lewis match-up set as a pick ‘em the first time around when odds opened, but by the time the fight was canceled, Spivak had moved to a -255 favorite to Lewis’ +160 dog status.