Recent heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has tagged Derrick Lewis as the most powerful puncher in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). After watching ‘The Black Beast’s highlight reel knockout punch of Curtis Blaydes at UFC Vegas 20 on Sunday, leading to some condemn from the MMA Twitter space.
Derrick’s Twitter handle is @Thebeast_ufc. “The Black Beast!! Has the most power ever,” Daniel posted after Lewis’ second-round knockout of Blaydes.
‘DC’ replied to the criticism by highlighting Lewis’ win against Ngannou from 2018 and the fact that Lewis has more knockout wins than “The Predator’ and broke the world record for the most knockouts in UFC heavyweight history at 12.
“Everyone began shouting Francis, Francis, Francis. Folks- there is a reason Francis Ngannou was so hesitant in the fight with Derrick Lewis,” Cormier said in a statement, referencing how shy Ngannou was against Lewis. “It’s the first time he’s ever fought like that. Francis outshines everybody from Alistair Overeem and Stipe Miocic. Almost an obvious disregard for them and their power.”
“He stood and took photographs with Derrick Lewis as the power coming back in his direction. So let’s not act like Derrick Lewis doesn’t have the strength to match anyone in the heavyweight category, even Francis Ngannou. And when you say knockouts, nobody has more than Lewis, so how do you state that another guy has more strength than him? And that’s not a smash on Francis- that’s just reality.”
Ngannou is set to take on Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight belt at UFC 260 on the 27th of March, while Lewis will probably sit out and wait to fight the champion.
