Derrick Lewis, Marcin Tybura to Meet at UFC Fight Night 126

A battle between two heavyweights on virtually equal footing has been reported for UFC Fight Night 126 in Austin, Texas. As reported by MMAJunkie, the fight is targeted for February 18th and joins Ray Borg vs. Brandon Moreno as the only other fight reported thus far.

Lewis will return from his first loss since June of 2015. Following a 6-fight win streak, five of those coming via (T)KO, a fight with Mark Hunt was booked. He fought Hunt in New Zealand this past June and was TKO’d late in the 4th. Throughout his UFC career, Lewis has been to decision just once, eeking out a fight opposite Roy Nelson.

Lewis was next expected to fight former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum but he had to withdraw from the contest on the day of the fight due to a back injury. He was replaced by Walt Harris who was dispatched in just over a minute.

Lewis, a resident of Texas, recently made headlines as he helped those in need during Hurricane Harvey. He should surely expect to enjoy a significant home field advantage.

His expected opponent, Tybura, is 5-2 in his UFC run. After a slow UFC start against Timothy Johnson, Tybura rebounded to win three straight fights. He put on memorable performances against Viktor Pešta and Luis Henrique, eventually facing former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski, who he defeated via decision.

He dropped his most recent fight to Fabricio Werdum just two weeks ago. Werdum was a late replacement as Mark Hunt was pulled from the card by the UFC who cited medical concerns in their explanation. This was his first main event in the UFC.

Both of these men have lost their bouts with ‘elite’ competition in their relatively short careers. A fight against one another represents one of the more important fights between two heavyweight contenders in some time.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 11/30/2017.