Preview: UFC Fight Night 215 ‘Lewis vs. Spivak’

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday steps back into the UFC Apex in Las Vegas with a post-UFC 281 hangover, but the UFC Fight Night 215 main card should provide its share of thrills, spills and chills. Derrick Lewis will return to the main event slot opposite Sergey Spivak, and like with most of his fights, it promises some combination of violence and comedy. Meanwhile, Ion Cutelaba provides a similar mix in the co-headliner, as he looks to effectively control his rage against Kennedy Nzechukwu. From there, Chase Sherman and Waldo Cortes-Acosta should offer some entertaining unranked heavyweight action, but two welterweight tilts represent the clear highlights of this slate. Andre Fialho and Muslim Salikhov have proven themselves, while Jack Della Maddalena ranks as one of the sport’s most promising prospects at 170 pounds.

Now to the UFC Fight Night “Lewis vs. Spivak” preview:

Heavyweights

#7 HW | Derrick Lewis (26-10, 17-8 UFC) vs. #12 HW | Sergey Spivak (15-3, 6-3 UFC)

ODDS: Spivak (-195), Lewis (+165)

Is this the end for Lewis? He gained some attention almost immediately upon his UFC debut with some impressive knockouts, but quick losses to Matt Mitrione and Shawn Jordan made it easy to write off “The Black Beast” as a glass cannon who had been figured out. Then Lewis learned the gift of patience, and from there, he never looked back. With his massive size, surprising athleticism and enough durability to get by, Lewis would essentially lay back and wait for the opportunity to end the fight with one blow. Sometimes the fight was over immediately, but just as often, opponents would tire themselves out first, whether by trying to outwrestle and control such a massive opponent or simply by trying to stay away from such a fearsome force. It is a combination of factors that would not really work anywhere other than heavyweight, but a memorable 2018 win over Alexander Volkov—remembered for Lewis’ late comeback and charismatically crass post-fight interview—marked his ninth win in 10 fights and earned him a title shot at Daniel Cormier shortly thereafter. That title challenge was a clear loss that exposed a lot of Lewis’ flaws, but from there, he managed to hang around the fringes of the title picture as a relevant heavyweight whose popularity also made him one of the UFC’s go-to performers for main events and prominent cards. A knockout win over Curtis Blaydes in February 2021 set Lewis up for an interim title fight against Ciryl Gane, but it looks like a bit of a last hurrah in retrospect. Lewis looked absolutely terrible before getting knocked out by Gane, and while he rebounded with a win over Chris Daukaus to close out 2021, the New Orleans native’s 2022 campaign has seen him come out of the losing end in straightforward brawls with Tai Tuivasa and Sergei Pavlovich. This could be a bit of Lewis’ luck over the years correcting itself in a division as unpredictable as heavyweight, or this could be a sign that he is finally slowing down to the point of ineffectiveness at 37 years old. At any rate, this pairing against Spivak should answer a lot of questions.

Spivak’s success was far from guaranteed, so good on him for working his way up to a main event slot. “The Polar Bear” was an interesting prospect upon his 2019 debut, owing to a series of wrestling-heavy wins he had against a series of journeymen prior to joining the UFC, but his first trip to the Octagon saw him get blasted by Walt Harris in just 50 seconds. Spivak’s next booking came against Tuivasa in Australia, so it was clear where he had been slotted by the UFC. However, rather than get run over by a marketable talent in need of a win, Spivak pulled off the huge upset, leaning on his wrestling to score a second-round submission and possibly save his job. From there, Spivak has won five of his last seven and served as a clear gatekeeper to the Top 10 or so at heavyweight. He can get stalled out against a better wrestler or taken apart by some of the more dynamic strikers in the division, but he has succeeded in drowning an impressive number of opponents at an increasingly high level. The Spivak of 2019 likely would not have been able to bully a massive athlete like Greg Hardy or a steady fringe contender like Augusto Sakai. It is unclear how that all will go against a 2022 version of Lewis. As recently as a year ago, Lewis likely would have been a significant favorite. Faced with a wrestler who has little in the way of knockout power, Lewis has almost always found a way to tire that type of opponent out and stage a late comeback. Again, those margins are growing increasingly thin, with Lewis looking easier to hurt and with Spivak discovering some effective ground-and-pound to end his victories before the final horn. Lewis is still big and still powerful so he gets the benefit of the doubt. The pick is Lewis via third-round stoppage.

Jump To »
Nzechukwu vs. Cutelaba
Cortes-Acosta vs. Sherman
Fialho vs. Salikhov
Della Maddalena vs. Roberts
The Prelims