'Big' John McCarthy discusses how Derrick Lewis faces the challenge of a new era of fighters

Derrick Lewis is an exciting heavyweight to watch and returns to action this Saturday at UFC Fight Night 215. 'Big' John McCarthy recently previewed the upcoming card and assessed where the former heavyweight title challenger stacks up in terms of the upper echelon of the division.

On a recent episode of their podcast, Weighing In, McCarthy and Josh Thomson evaluated Lewis' performances and the former MMA referee brought up that the new era of heavyweights is becoming increasingly difficult to compete with:

"Is Derrick Lewis the gatekeeper of the heavyweights? Kind of talked about it before... We argue back and forth. Do you look and say now at this point, is he the guy that you're looking, 'Man, he's good, he's tough, he strong, he hits like a frickin mule.' But if you can get by him, is the UFC going to put you in their upper echelon?"

McCarthy alluded to 'The Black Beast' being at a point in his career where another title shot might be unlikely. He added that the promotion could see the former heavyweight title challenger's current ranking as an indicator of whether his opponents have the potential to evolve and become one of the top fighters in the division:

"The guys you're looking at are above him right now, a lot of them have wins against him. I'm just looking and thinking does the UFC look at him as someone that they would put back into a championship fight at heavyweight now? I think they're looking more towards a Jon Jones coming in and taking on Francis [Nganno]... Heavyweights are just rare at being super athletic."

The former heavyweight title challenger is coming into the main event following back-to-back losses and both via KO/TKO. His most recent fight took place at UFC 277 in July, where Sergei Pavlovich finished him with strikes 55-seconds into the first round.

Check out the full episode below:

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Can Derrick Lewis get back into title contention?

Despite being on a two-fight losing streak, Derrick Lewis is still ranked in the top 10 in the UFC heavyweight division.

If 'The Black Beast' can snap his two-fight losing streak, he could either remain at No.7 or move up a spot depending on whether he has an impressive performance. Standing in his way is No.12 ranked heavyweight Sergey Spivac, who has been very impressive and has won back-to-back fights via TKO.

If Lewis can put together another winning streak, a future title shot shouldn't be ruled out, especially considering he has a win against reigning UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and their rematch didn't come to fruition in 2021.