Derrick Lewis Updates Back Injury Heading Into UFC 229

Derrick Lewis Shares

Derrick Lewis shares the latest update on how his back has been treating him while he prepares for his UFC return inside of the Octagon.

Lewis has won eight of his last nine fights he’s coming off of victories over Marcin Tybura and Francis Ngannou at the UFC 226 event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now, the hard-hitting heavyweight star is slated to fight former Bellator heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov at the UFC 229 pay-per-view event.

Derrick Lewis Shares Update

During a recent interview on The MMA Hour, he noted that he underwent a new treatment on his back a few weeks ago. As a result, he feels that his body is feeling up to the challenge of taking on another fight camp.

“This is my first time having them (the shots),” Lewis said. “I was taking magnesium, and magnesium was working for a while, but this last fight right here. It didn’t work at all.

“I feel good. I feel real mobile right now,” he added. “All of my fights, especially all of my UFC fights my whole career. I’ve never been in there without any kind of impingement and pain wrong with my back. It just amazes me that I made it this far with all the pain that I have to endure during all of my fights.

“We’re taking it step-by-step, day-by-day. We’re taking it real slow, because ain’t no way I’m going to pull out of this fight again. I’ve pulled out in the past and I ain’t planning on doing it for this fight here.”

The Fight

In order for this fight to go on then he has to be healthy enough to accept the fight. Once Lewis gets over the hurdles of that, he has a great chance to cement himself as a top contender in the division.

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The UFC 229 pay-per-view event is slated to take place on Saturday, October 6, 2018 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.

With this fight likely being booked in the co-main event slot, then many fight fans will be seeing it due to the Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov main event.

“He’s a tough guy, he’s a long guy,” Lewis said of Volkov. “I really can’t stay in his kicking range or his reach, and stuff like that. I believe I’ve gotta push the pace and get closer to him and really get more strikes off than he can land on me.

“Hopefully it can be a dominating performance and put me right back in the place I was supposed to be in — be a contender, a real contender, and be fighting for the belt next.”