Derrick Lewis might be fighting for the interim heavyweight title this weekend, but you wouldn’t know it from his antics outside the Octagon. In a recent interview ahead of his fight against Frenchman Ciryl Gane, Lewis discussed his early career, including dabbling in boxing, and his relationship with boxing legend George Foreman.
The story goes that when Derrick Lewis switched from boxing to MMA, George Foreman came to reclaim the car he’d lent Lewis while they were training together. “I told him, ‘No I don’t think boxing is going to be for me.’
Derrick Lewis Recalls The Time George Foreman Repossessed his Car
By this time they had already given me a car. They were about to put me up in an apartment across from the gym I was training at in downtown Houston.
I told them, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do boxing. I’m going to stick to MMA’ because I felt like MMA was easier than boxing. So they took the car away from me. It was a Buick anyway.”
Derrick Lewis wound up on George Foreman’s radar when the boxing legend needed sparring partners for his sons. George Foreman’s son, also named George Foreman (as are his four brothers), needed a sparring partner, and the heavy-hitting Derrick Lewis was chosen.
However, George Foreman senior saw Derrick’s talent for violence and enlisted Lewis in his training program, helping take care of the young man. However, Lewis’ laid-back ways conflicted with the gruelling, disciplined life of a Foreman-trained boxer, who famously dubbed his training regime “the torture chamber”.
The “Black Beast” said: “I believe it’s more suitable to me because basically I’m a street fighter and MMA is mostly, I think, street fighting without getting hit in the nuts or eye-gouging.
Boxing, I believe you have to train a lot more than MMA.” These days, Lewis is happy with the cars he’s bought with his own UFC money.
“I drive a couple of cars. A Mercedes GTS and I’m waiting on my Huracan to get delivered next week. I still need to stay low-key because my wife really doesn’t like me being lavish.
She thinks the chicken heads are going to come out of the woodwork. True story! The scalawags come out with their little short dresses and all that.
Trying to come up to me with the Ronda Rousey lookalike mask and wig and everything trying to holler at me.” Foreman, for his part, was heartbroken that Lewis left boxing.
He told ESPN: “He made that move, and it was a wise move, but it was a heartbreaking move for me because he could have been a great boxer.”
But Big George hasn’t given up hope yet, and still wants to get Derrick Lewis in the boxing ring. “If he’s given the right heavyweight match, he could do well. I would help him
With his experience and extra skill he can become a great boxer and make a lot of money.” Do you want to see Derrick Lewis in the boxing ring? Let us know in the comments.
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