Derrick Lewis grateful for UFC 230 title shot, but believes Stipe Miocic deserved the chance before him

At long last, UFC 230 finally has a main event. The card will be headlined by a last-minute heavyweight title fight between champion Daniel Cormier and streaking challenger Derrick Lewis.

Not everybody, however, is happy about this title fight. Some members of the MMA community feel that Lewis is jumping the heavyweight contendership line, and that the next crack at Cormier’s title should have gone to Stipe Miocic, the man Cormier defeated to win the title.

Miocic, to remind, set the record for most consecutive defenses of the UFC heavyweight title just before he lost the title to Cormier. Some fans feel that he deserved an immediate on a rematch on the basis of this previous dominance.

Derrick Lewis understands these opinions. In fact, he agrees with them.

“I don’t know why they don’t want to give it to Stipe,” Derrick Lewis told TMZ this week (transcript via MMA Mania). “I appreciate them giving me the shot, but I believe that Stipe really deserved the shot since he was the champion for awhile, he defended it that many times, he was dominant for awhile. I don’t know why they gave it to me before they gave it to Stipe because when everyone else lost their belts, they gave them a shot to win it back. I don’t why they didn’t want to give it to Stipe unless he wanted some time off.”

Miocic, of course, doesn’t want “time off” as Lewis speculates. In fact, he says he offered to fight Cormier at 230 with almost nothing in the way of preparation. But for whatever reason, the UFC wasn’t interested.

9 times out of 10 I beat DC. Everyone knows it. DC knows it. No heavyweight has ever accomplished what I have. #HWGOAT pic.twitter.com/ca7DDpHTOK

— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocic) October 9, 2018

“9 times out of 10 I beat DC,” Miocic said on Twitter on Tuesday. “Everyone knows it. DC knows it. No heavyweight has ever accomplished what I have.”

You beat me that night. I respect that. But it would never happen again. I carried the torch in this division for a long time. I’ve been staying up all night with my new born daughter and I still offered to fight you nov 3 with ZERO camp weeks ago.

— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocic) October 10, 2018