Derrick Lewis was last seen in action at UFC 247, scoring a unanimous decision win over Ilir Latifi.
A victorious Lewis could be in for the battle of his life due to an undisclosed medical condition, which Lewis’ coach had checked out before UFC 247.
“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 said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (via Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “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.”
There is no word at this time as to what exactly the medical condition is, as Lewis hasn’t revealed it to the general public.
Lewis also says the life or death medical issue led to UFC doctors recommending that he not fight at UFC 247.
“Oh yeah. It’s really like life or death situation serious,” Lewis said. “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. 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.”
The fighter also revealed in the interview with Ariel Helwani that he had been battling the undisclosed medical issue for over a year now.
