UFC Nashville headliner Derrick Lewis made a chatty online troll pay a big price in 2018.
UFC knockout king Derrick Lewis is never afraid of a fight, in and out of the cage. Lewis is one of the UFC’s biggest fan favorites, known for his entertaining style and personality.
Despite his fame and fortune, Lewis isn’t a stranger to dealing with harsh detractors online. Many top UFC stars, including Israel Adesanya and Conor McGregor, deal with their fair share of online hate on a regular basis.
In 2018, Lewis decided to hit back at his online trolls by sharing an open gym invite to spar with him at his gym. It went just about as you’d expect.
Derrick Lewis knocked out troll in front of wife, daughter after he accepted open gym invite
Lewis had several Houston, TX locals take him up on his offer to train with him at his gym, with all three of them suffering brutal consequences for their online taunts. One of them had his wife and daughter accompany him to the gym to watch Lewis add another knockout to his record.
In a 2021 appearance on Hot Ones, Lewis explained what happened after he posted an open invite for training partners.
“I had a couple of guys [accept], I knocked three guys out that week, it was fun. Made sure they would sign the waiver, that type of paperwork,” Lewis said.
“There was a guy that came on his birthday, 41 years old, he brought his wife and daughter to the gym. They were filming, and I knocked him out with a head kick in the first few seconds. The daughter started laughing, and his wife was like ‘Oooooh!’, and his wife deleted the clip. But I saw the video on his daughter’s phone, she sent it to my coach, and that’s what he gets! He didn’t know we were doing kicking, but he kicked me in my leg twice!
“My coach didn’t like that. He was worried that they were going to sue.”
Luckily, the man didn’t sue nor suffer serious injury as a result of the knockout. Lewis later posted an image of the man face-down on the canvas following the head kick, but the post has since been taken down off of Instagram.
The knockout took place just weeks before Lewis’s knockout win over Marcin Tybura in Feb. 2018. He went on to earn a come-from-behind win over Alexander Volkov at UFC 229 before a loss to Daniel Cormier at UFC 230.
Derrick Lewis returns against the UFC’s tallest fighter at UFC Nashville
Lewis returns to the Octagon this Saturday to headline UFC Nashville opposite 6’7″ Tallison Teixeira. Teixeira won his UFC debut with a brutal knockout at Justin Tafa at UFC 312 earlier this year.
Lewis hasn’t fought since finishing Rodrigo Nascimento at UFC St. Louis in May 2024. He’s won two of his last three fights, including a highlight-reel finish at UFC 291 over Marcos Rogerio de Lima.
Lewis will look to extend his all-time UFC knockout record this Saturday and get back into the heavyweight title mix.
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