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‘Big’ John McCarthy believes the Derrick Lewis vs. Sergei Pavlovic fight at UFC 277 on July 30 was marred by an early stoppage. Pavlovic blitzed Lewis with strikes early and knocked him down, prompting referee Dan Miragliotta to step in and wave off the fight. This made Pavlovic the winner via first-round TKO.
However, Lewis immediately got back on his feet and protested the stoppage. On the Weighing In podcast, former MMA referee John McCarthy addressed this and stated:
“I did not agree, you know, the stoppage; I thought it was early. And it was, because you know those guys going into the fight. It’s not like these are new, young guys. You know what Derrick Lewis does. You know that he has come back in fights where he has been hit and has gone down.”
“And you know the way that he does go down. He doesn’t usually go to his bu**. He tends to go towards this face-down, a**-up position, but he tries to fight his way through it. You’ve gotta give him that time. But I know Dan was trying to protect him.”
He highlighted that Lewis is a professional fighter known for recovering swiftly after being hurt and opined that the way Lewis fell may have caused Miragliotta to stop the fight.
McCarthy noted that he’d have liked to see the fight continue rather than have a controversial stoppage. Nevertheless, he admitted that the technically sound Pavlovich was a bad stylistic matchup for a brawler like Lewis, who he thinks would’ve lost regardless.
Watch McCarthy discuss the topic at 37:20 in the video below:
When Derrick Lewis and Daniel Cormier revisited their fight ahead of UFC 277
Prior to Derrick Lewis’ UFC 277 fight, he appeared on The DC Check-In with Daniel Cormier. Lewis challenged Cormier for the UFC heavyweight title in November 2018 but was out-grappled and defeated via second-round submission.
During their recent conversation, Daniel Cormier revealed that the hardest he’d ever been hit was when he faced Derrick Lewis. Praising Lewis for his otherworldly knockout power, Cormier said:
"What I do remember about that fight though, I've never been hit harder in my life. You gave me a black eye, and I was holding your leg up. I had knots all in my arms from them jump kick things you be doing."
Watch Lewis’ interview with ‘DC’ in the video below:
On that note, despite his two-fight losing streak, many consider Lewis to still be one of the deadliest UFC heavyweights. While some fans have called for an immediate rematch between Lewis and Pavlovich, it's unclear as to whether or not that fight will materialize next.
