Former UFC heavyweight contender, Derrick Lewis, shared he has been battling a serious medical issue that has a massive impact on his training.
And the situation is a matter of life and death.
This past Saturday, ‘The Black Beast’ fought in front of the home fans in Houston, Texas as he starred in the main card of UFC 247 pay-per-view event opposite Ilir Latifi.
Lewis eked out a razor-close decision win but the fight doesn’t stop there as an undisclosed medical condition has been his major concern for over a year now.
“My coach wants me to get something checked out that came up in my medicals and stuff like that that’s been hindering my training,” Lewis told Ariel Helwani in a recent interview (via MMA Fighting).
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Dead Serious
The 35-year old fighter out of Louisiana shared the condition commonly happens to many athletes and said he needs to address it before it’s too late.
“I’m really supposed to be keeping it on the down low.”
“I gotta get it checked out. The UFC doctors know what it is and the doctor’s here in Houston know what it is as well.”
“It’s just something that’s been going on that I’ve got to get addressed.”
“Oh yeah. It’s really like life or death situation serious. I’m dead serious. I’m dead serious.”
“It’s something that happens to a lot of athletes. It doesn’t matter if you’re healthy or not.”
“It’s something that could happen to you at the drop of a hat. That’s all I can say.”
Not Worried
In fact, he has been told to pull out of the Saturday fight card but the UFC doctors gave him the green light to fight inside the Octagon.
“The doctor actually had told me that he thinks I shouldn’t have took this last fight. That’s what he said.”
“They said that with the situation like this, he don’t think I should fight.”
“So I got a second opinion from the UFC doctors and they read it over and checked everything out and they said that it shouldn’t be a problem.”
He added: “In the first round, it happened and then I was like, okay, I’m just not gonna think about it.”
“The situation that’s going on.”
“It’s been really happening for over a year and I finally went to the doctor and got it checked out a month ago.”
“No, I’m not worried. Probably like next week I’m gonna go to the doctor. Maybe this week so we’ll see,” Lewis said in closing.
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(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Derrick Lewis and UFC)