JRE MMA Show #105 with Derrick Lewis

Joe Rogan 0:00 (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

Derrick Lewis 0:04 The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan 0:06 Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) All right. Mr. Lewis, what's up?

Derrick Lewis 0:15 What's up? What's up?

Joe Rogan 0:16 Thanks for being here and doing this.

Derrick Lewis 0:18 Thanks for finally having me.

Joe Rogan 0:19 My pleasure, dude. And yeah, we talked about it a couple times.

Derrick Lewis 0:21 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 0:22 The "my balls was hot" one was the famous one.

Derrick Lewis 0:24 I don't remember that one.

Joe Rogan 0:27 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 0:27 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 0:28 So how's things, man?

Derrick Lewis 0:29 Things been crazy. Been real crazy.

Joe Rogan 0:31 I can only imagine.

Derrick Lewis 0:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:32 After that knockout of Curtis Blaydes, like, uh, poof. I mean, that- that got a lot of attention.

Derrick Lewis 0:38 Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it felt real gr- good to knock him out because he was talking a lot of trash before the fight.

Joe Rogan 0:45 Isn't that, like, par for the course, though? Everybody talks shit before the fight.

Derrick Lewis 0:49 Um, even whenever I'm doing good, though. He been talking, at least three years now, he been talking mess to me.

Joe Rogan 0:54 Really?

Derrick Lewis 0:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:56 Do you take that shit personally?

Derrick Lewis 0:58 Um, I- I do because I'm not in there trying to sell tickets. Don't just come to me trying to sell tickets to talk trash, you know. I take everything personal.

Joe Rogan 1:07 Yeah, some guys do just try to sell tickets and then they, they'll say, "It's not personal." It's just, like, when Khabib Nurmagomedov was fucking up Conor when he was on top of him, pounding on him, going, "Let's talk now. Let's talk now." Remember that?

Derrick Lewis 1:20 (laughs) Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:21 And he goes, "It's just business." You know? It's like, this is not business.

Derrick Lewis 1:24 No. No. I go into every fight, like, life or death. And I go i- I enter a deep, dark place every time I step inside the octagon, so it's not business for me.

Joe Rogan 1:36 What was interesting is after the fight, I mean, it was just such a spectacular knockout, but after the fight, you were so nonchalant. You were just so relaxed and you're like, "I couldn't get started in there."

Derrick Lewis 1:46 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:46 And everybody's like, "What the fuck are you talking about you couldn't get started? You just... It was one of the most spectacular knockouts in the history of the heavyweight division." And you're like, "Oh, I couldn't get started."

Derrick Lewis 1:55 Yeah, um, so I went back home and got my blood and everything tested and my T levels was, like, in the 300s. So I had very low T, so it's like-

Joe Rogan 2:06 You mean testosterone?

Derrick Lewis 2:07 Yes.

Joe Rogan 2:08 You?

Derrick Lewis 2:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:09 Have low testosterone?

Derrick Lewis 2:10 Yes.

Joe Rogan 2:11 That's ridiculous.

Derrick Lewis 2:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:12 I would never... Uh, if you h- if I was gonna make a bet? (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 2:16 (laughs) It's so, like, I try to spend all my energy on my wife, so it's kinda hard because-

Joe Rogan 2:23 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 2:23 ... if I don't have the energy for her, then she'll think I'm out there messing around and stuff like that, so.

Joe Rogan 2:28 So t- do they know why your testosterone was low?

Derrick Lewis 2:31 Um... (sighs)

Joe Rogan 2:31 Maybe overtrained or something?

Derrick Lewis 2:33 No, I don't... We- we don't know yet, so I wanna go to another doctor that the lady was just telling me about.

Joe Rogan 2:39 Oh, wow.

Derrick Lewis 2:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:40 That's crazy. So that's why you felt lethargic.

Derrick Lewis 2:43 Yes. Yes. It was like that all week. Saw... A- at first I was- I thought it was the jet lag or something like that, but in the... ended up just being my T levels.

Joe Rogan 2:53 (sighs) That was a, like, one of the most perfectly timed uppercuts I've ever seen. It was perfect.

Derrick Lewis 2:58 Yeah, we practiced that for the last few months, yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:00 So that was the game plan when he shoots, to catch him coming in?

Derrick Lewis 3:03 Yes. Either the knee or the uppercut. Um, we knew he was gonna be there. We knew he was gonna try to play the game, try to stand up for a little bit. And the way he shoots, he don't really shoot like, um, a real wrestler. He shoots, like, from the hip down and come in like that. He doesn't bend the knee and try to come in.

Joe Rogan 3:22 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 3:23 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 3:24 That's interesting. So he goes... He hinges. He goes forward.

Derrick Lewis 3:28 Yes. Yes.

Joe Rogan 3:28 Why do you think he does that?

Derrick Lewis 3:30 Um, I don't know. I don't know, you know. Most usually, the wrestlers, they drop a knee then shoots.

Joe Rogan 3:37 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 3:38 But he just bend down and I'm guessing he was just trying to grab my leg to pick it up or something like that. I don't know.

Joe Rogan 3:43 So how- how did you get involved in fighting? What was your first experiences?

Derrick Lewis 3:48 First experience was, like... 'Cause everyone knew I loved fighting in the streets, like, every weekend at parties and stuff like that, and so one of my friends had told me, um, about MMA and I was like... I didn't really know anything about MMA at the time and he to- he told me to watch-

Joe Rogan 4:04 How long ago was this?

Derrick Lewis 4:04 ... videos. It's, like, 10 years ago.

Joe Rogan 4:06 Did you have any martial arts training at all?

Derrick Lewis 4:08 No, I don't. I- I still don't have any martial arts training, really. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 4:13 (laughs) That's ridiculous. Of course, you do.

Derrick Lewis 4:14 Really. Somewhat, somewhat.

Joe Rogan 4:14 You're a professional martial artist.

Derrick Lewis 4:16 I'm watching YouTube videos now, so I'm learning some stuff now.

Joe Rogan 4:19 Really?

Derrick Lewis 4:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:21 Y- y- you're not, you're not fucking around? Like, really? You learn from YouTube videos?

Derrick Lewis 4:24 I'm serious. I learn, I learn from my coach as well, but I watch YouTube videos and stuff like that too.

Joe Rogan 4:30 So 10 years ago, you had no martial arts training at all?

Derrick Lewis 4:33 No martial arts training.

Joe Rogan 4:34 And where'd you first start training?

Derrick Lewis 4:36 I j- started training at a gym called Silverback MMA.

Joe Rogan 4:40 And so this was 10 years ago.

Derrick Lewis 4:42 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 4:42 You just decided to learn. Were you thinking about being a professional? Were you just doing it for fun?

Derrick Lewis 4:47 Um, they say that... Back then, I thought, like, 500, 500 was pretty good money, you know, so they were saying that you could get paid, um, $500, um, just three rounds in three minutes. I said, "Just three minutes?" I didn't think three minutes was a long time until I got in there. It's like, "Damn."

Joe Rogan 5:04 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 5:04 "Okay." (laughs) And so we just started training from there though. And I fell in love with it. So it's... It's... To me, it's almost like street fighting. So it's like, "Yeah, I could do that."

Joe Rogan 5:16 Well, one of the things that's changed about you over the years is your endurance. Your endurance is... It, it came up in a big way. Like, you can see it in the Gabriel Gonzaga fight. You can see it in a lot of your fights. Like, you can-

Derrick Lewis 5:27 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 5:27 You can put pressure on people now. And, and you have a, a lot of high volume with which, in the beginning of your career, I think, you had a harder time with.

Derrick Lewis 5:35 Oh, yeah. I mean, so that's really what we focus on now at, um, Mainz Street Boxing Gym, is my, um, conditioning and my endurance and stuff like that because we feel like that's the only weakness, um, in my game right now.

Joe Rogan 5:48 (smacks lips) Yeah, but, uh, it's, like, you're so big. I don't even know if it's a weakness. I think it's just part of being a giant person, you know? Like...

Derrick Lewis 5:54 Yeah, yeah. Like where I get-

Joe Rogan 5:55 But the Travis Browne fight's another example.

Derrick Lewis 5:57 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 5:57 Like, that was a crazy fast-paced fight, but you, you know, you overwhelmed him.

Derrick Lewis 6:03 Yeah, yeah, um... (laughs) ... and I love that fight too. Before the... This, this past fight with Curry, that was one of my favorite. And that, that week going into Travis Browne fight, I took some laxatives, um, to try to help me cut some weight. But, you know, I took it that Wednesday and it was still lingering around. So it's like, man, he kicked me in my body. But he also broke my ribs, but I also did have to take a shit that day.

Joe Rogan 6:31 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 6:31 So (laughs) I wasn't lying about that, so yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 6:35 That was a ridiculous interview, though.

Derrick Lewis 6:39 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 6:39 (laughs) Yeah, that fight was, uh, that wa- that was a heavy duty fight.

Derrick Lewis 6:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:42 There was a lot of bad blood in that fight too, right?

Derrick Lewis 6:44 Yes. And ever since then, like, whenever I do my, um... You know how they come in few days before, the commentators try to talk to you.

Joe Rogan 6:53 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 6:53 And ever since then, I stopped telling the, the guys what's my game plan and stuff like that, because I didn't know him and Brian Stan at the time was friends, and so-

Joe Rogan 7:04 Oh.

Derrick Lewis 7:05 Our game plan was to come in and try to, um, like, kick his legs because he used to stand real wide.

Joe Rogan 7:11 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 7:12 But whenever me and him fought, he didn't stand like that at all. Like, not one time. And so-

Joe Rogan 7:17 So you think Brian Stan went to him and told him?

Derrick Lewis 7:19 I believe so. I believe so.

Joe Rogan 7:20 Oh, Brian.

Derrick Lewis 7:21 Yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 7:23 That's kinda dirty.

Derrick Lewis 7:24 Yeah, yeah, yeah, so...

Joe Rogan 7:26 And he didn't tell you his strategy?

Derrick Lewis 7:28 No, he didn't.

Joe Rogan 7:30 Damn, Brian Stan.

Derrick Lewis 7:31 So-

Joe Rogan 7:32 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 7:32 ... I'ma just believe that's... That was the case, because he didn't do that at all. And I watched previous fights of, um, Travis and it... He always used to have that wide stance.

Joe Rogan 7:42 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 7:42 And he didn't do that at all for my fight.

Joe Rogan 7:44 That's interesting. Um, do you watch a lot of tape on fights?

Derrick Lewis 7:48 Who?

Joe Rogan 7:48 Do you watch tape on fighters when you're gonna face them?

Derrick Lewis 7:50 I used to. Like early in my career I used to, but then I stopped because they fight me different. Like, if I'm watching tape on a wrestler, then by the time me and him fight, it's... He's gonna try to stand up with me. It's just like when I ever fought Big Country, um, I thought he was gonna stand up the whole fight, and he just tried to take down, take down.

Joe Rogan 8:11 But don't most dudes try to take you down? I mean, you have some pretty ridiculous punching power. I think a lot of guys, if, if the option presents itself, they're gonna try to take you down, right?

Derrick Lewis 8:22 Yeah, I guess so. But I prefer that anyways. Um, I... That's where I, I, I was starting to breathe and catch myself and s-... My adrenaline be pumping too high. Like, um, I fought Ron Potts and my adrenaline was out of s- out of this world. And so I told my coach that if that happens, like in a fight with him, that I'm gonna need him in the nuts on purpose.

Joe Rogan 8:46 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 8:46 And so... (clears throat)

Joe Rogan 8:47 I don't think you should say that. Cut that out, man.

Derrick Lewis 8:50 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 8:50 Cut that part out. You can't say that, man.

Derrick Lewis 8:52 But, no, uh, my adrenaline was just crazy, I just needed to calm down. So it was like beginning of the fight and so I did it on purpose and...

Joe Rogan 9:02 Oh, no.

Derrick Lewis 9:02 You know? I knew they... I was gonna get a warning, so I was like, "Okay, I'm calmed down now, so, all right. We can go now." Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:11 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 9:11 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 9:11 That's an interesting strategy.

Derrick Lewis 9:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:13 Do you... So what- what makes you... What makes you get more amped up for some fights than others?

Derrick Lewis 9:19 Um, what gets me amped up is, um, if I'm looking at something that I wanna buy, um, after the fight, and so I'm like, "Okay, yeah, I'll buy that."

Joe Rogan 9:30 So you get excited?

Derrick Lewis 9:30 Yeah, I get excited for that.

Joe Rogan 9:33 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 9:33 You know, so I'm-

Joe Rogan 9:33 You start counting your win bonus?

Derrick Lewis 9:34 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm already counting my win bonus before I even get it. So I'm like...

Joe Rogan 9:38 Like, give me an example of something that would... That you would wanna buy that gets you excited.

Derrick Lewis 9:42 Um, just we had wanted to buy some property in Colorado, um, few years ago. And so I was like, "Man, if, if I could get this knockout right here then we could buy it cash." And so, that right there, it gets me excited to do stuff like that. Like, because there's no more cars. I, I got all the cars and, like, that don't excites me anymore. It used to, but, like, stuff like that gets me excited.

Joe Rogan 10:06 What are you gonna do in Colorado? Are you gonna get, like, a vacation spot?

Derrick Lewis 10:08 Yes. We got, um, we got, like, 80 acres, and so, yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:11 Oh, nice. Nice. Where at?

Derrick Lewis 10:14 In St. Louis.

Joe Rogan 10:16 Where's that at?

Derrick Lewis 10:17 It's, like, south of Colorado Springs.

Joe Rogan 10:21 Oh, okay.

Derrick Lewis 10:22 Yeah. It's like two hours away from New Mexico.

Joe Rogan 10:25 Oh, all right. I, I fucking love Colorado.

Derrick Lewis 10:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:27 It's so, so beautiful.

Derrick Lewis 10:28 It's beautiful out there. Beautiful.

Joe Rogan 10:29 So peaceful too, right?

Derrick Lewis 10:30 Especially at night. It's... I didn't... Those, that many stars at night, it's like, it's... They don't even seem real.

Joe Rogan 10:37 I know, it's crazy.

Derrick Lewis 10:38 It's so quiet out there, yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:40 It lets you know that, you know, we really are in space-

Derrick Lewis 10:42 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 10:43 ... when you look up like that.

Derrick Lewis 10:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:45 Especially if you're high, right?

Derrick Lewis 10:47 Man, that's another... That's a different story right there.

Joe Rogan 10:49 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 10:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:50 So for a guy like you, I would imagine, like, you need some serious downtime, 'cause, like, the chaos of being a professional fighter-

Derrick Lewis 10:57 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 10:57 ... at the highest level in the heavyweight division, like, there's a lot of pressure and stress.

Derrick Lewis 11:02 Oh, yeah, that's why I don't watch fights, you know?

Joe Rogan 11:04 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 11:04 Whenever I watch fights, I catch myself starting to sweat or, like, holding my breath. And so, like, this past weekend and I was watching one of the guys fighting, I was sitting next to my wife, and she noticed that I just started breathing heavy re- out of nowhere-

Joe Rogan 11:19 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 11:19 ... because I'm already daydreaming-

Joe Rogan 11:21 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 11:21 ... about, "Okay, if I was in that situation, this is what I would do." And so, like, that's why I don't watch fights 'cause it's still stressful.

Joe Rogan 11:27 Yeah, so there was a rarer thing, you watching the fight Saturday night?

Derrick Lewis 11:32 Um, just weirding how that one guy that's fighting, like, Khabib, you know, it's like-

Joe Rogan 11:37 Oh, Islam Makhachev?

Derrick Lewis 11:38 Yes.

Joe Rogan 11:39 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 11:39 And I was, like wondering, like, if a guy will hold me down like that, like, the whole fight he won't be able to do anything, what would I do? And that's-

Joe Rogan 11:46 That dude's a bad motherfucker.

Derrick Lewis 11:48 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:48 Islam's... He's, he's for real. That, that grappling is serious. 'Cause that kid, Drew Dober, is very good.

Derrick Lewis 11:54 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 11:55 For him to handle Drew Dober that way-

Derrick Lewis 11:57 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:57 ... I was super impressed. What did you think of the main event, Blachowicz and, uh, Stylbender?

Derrick Lewis 12:03 (sighs) You know, I was going for Stylebender but Blachowicz just seemed too, like, strong. Like his power is like... wasn't match with Izzy.

Joe Rogan 12:14 Yeah, his power is ridiculous. That dude's got crazy power. And he's a big fella too.

Derrick Lewis 12:18 Yeah, he's big.

Joe Rogan 12:19 There's a difference between a legitimate light heavyweight and a guy who's a middleweight and just wants to test himself.

Derrick Lewis 12:24 Yeah, but I don't... I don't think he's... he got what it takes to beat Jones though.

Joe Rogan 12:30 Yeah. Jones is a different person. He's a different person. I mean, Jon, Jon Jones is... You know, that's top of the food chain.

Derrick Lewis 12:36 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 12:36 He just figures a way around people. He figures out how to beat people.

Derrick Lewis 12:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:41 But I gotta admit, when you see what Blachowicz did to, um, uh... What the fuck's his name? Uh, the guy he knocked... Jesus Christ, I talked...

Narrator 12:52 Dominick Reyes?

Joe Rogan 12:53 Dominick Reyes, thank you.

Derrick Lewis 12:53 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 12:53 I don't know what happened. Um, my brain just short cer- circuited. Dominick Reyes went five hard rounds on Jon Jones and was a real close decision.

Derrick Lewis 13:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 13:01 Blachowicz blew him out in two rounds.

Derrick Lewis 13:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:04 You know, the thing about Blachowicz is you can't fuck up, you know. It's a lot like you.

Derrick Lewis 13:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:07 Like you can't make any mistakes.

Derrick Lewis 13:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 13:09 He hits too fucking hard.

Derrick Lewis 13:10 Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um-

Joe Rogan 13:16 But I would like to see that fight. I wish Jon... But I... I wanna see Jon at heavyweight too. What do you think about Jon coming up to your weight class?

Derrick Lewis 13:23 Yeah, that's good. Um... And, you know, Jon cool, he's cool with people or whatever. But I also, like, picture myself fighting him one day. And I kinda know what his game plan would be if he ever faced me. You know, he'd try to attack the legs a lot. Um, I don't think he'll really try to take me down. He'll try to keep his distance and try to strike at it, um, ef- like, at a distance or what. He'll try to stay away.

Joe Rogan 13:50 You don't think he'll try to take you down at all?

Derrick Lewis 13:52 I don't think so.

Joe Rogan 13:52 How come? What makes you think that?

Derrick Lewis 13:55 'Cause I would love for a guy to get that close to me.

Joe Rogan 13:57 Hmm.

Derrick Lewis 13:58 You know, that's... I believe that's their downfall whenever they get that close.

Joe Rogan 14:03 That makes sense, so-

Derrick Lewis 14:03 They clinch up, especially.

Joe Rogan 14:05 Yeah. Well, Jon's very good at using those... That, that long reach.

Derrick Lewis 14:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 14:09 You know. It's... I'm just interested to see. I mean, he's at 250 pounds now, that's a legit heavyweight. He looks like a heavyweight for sure.

Derrick Lewis 14:17 Um, I don't think he should try to gain any more weight though. I think, like, his walk-around weight is good enough because I believe he walks around at 240, 235, something like that. I don't think he should, like, keep trying to gain weight or bulk up as much as he think he should because, um, Cain Velasquez and Stipe, they walk around at 235, 240. And so, he'd be a natural heavyweight really.

Joe Rogan 14:44 That's interesting because there's a s- there's two schools of thought, right? There's a school of thought that you should be as big as you possibly can to deal with guys like you or guys like Francis Ngannou, the biggest of the big in the division. And then the other school of thought is you should be lighter, have more endurance, push more volume, move quicker.

Derrick Lewis 15:01 That's, that's what I'm working on right now.

Joe Rogan 15:03 Are you working on losing weight? That was gonna ask you.

Derrick Lewis 15:04 Just trying to be endurance and trying to be quicker and stuff like that because being big is like... You can last for like three minutes, four, four or five minutes one round, and then after that everything start going downhill.

Joe Rogan 15:17 What do you weigh now?

Derrick Lewis 15:18 Like right now I'm 290 only because I ate Krispy Kreme this morning.

Joe Rogan 15:22 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 15:22 And we... You're gonna cut that part out though. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 15:25 What do you wanna get down to?

Derrick Lewis 15:26 I would love to get down to like 250, 245.

Joe Rogan 15:30 Yeah?

Derrick Lewis 15:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:31 Do you see that being possible? I think your skeleton weighs about 250. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 15:36 (laughs) I don't know. I don't know. Um, I'm trying, I'm trying. But since I've been off, I've been eating my ass off, so... I would love to get down 250 though.

Joe Rogan 15:46 Now, I watched a lot of your training videos and you do a lot of strength and conditioning stuff, like a lot of-

Derrick Lewis 15:50 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 15:51 ...like explosive work and shit like that. Would you change that and just do... start, start doing a lot of like long distance endurance stuff? Like how would you lose that kind of weight?

Derrick Lewis 15:58 No, I wouldn't change that. I love doing that. I believe me doing all right... That right there, um, takes a lot out of me, and I love feeling fatigued after every workout. And so I wouldn't do that, anything like that. But I will also try to run on a track or something like that, run few miles around a track. That's something I never done before.

Joe Rogan 16:19 Would you... Oh, so you don't run at all?

Derrick Lewis 16:21 No.

Joe Rogan 16:21 Would you... So what do you do for endurance work?

Derrick Lewis 16:23 I do StairMaster. Um, we do s- um, elliptical bike and stuff like that. We... I, I don't run. I haven't ran in years really.

Joe Rogan 16:35 Do you not run because you don't like it or do you not run because of your joints 'cause-

Derrick Lewis 16:39 Uh, I just don't like it.

Joe Rogan 16:40 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 16:40 It's boring. I mean, really.

Joe Rogan 16:41 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 16:41 It's boring.

Joe Rogan 16:43 But if it was good for you, do you think you would... So this is the plan? The plan is to start incorporating that?

Derrick Lewis 16:49 Yeah, if it's good for me, you know. But it's hard though.

Joe Rogan 16:52 I can only imagine.

Derrick Lewis 16:53 I could probably do it for a few days, but after that I'm like, "Uh, no, I don't feel like doing all that."

Joe Rogan 16:59 Well, I only weigh 200 pounds and it's hard on my knees.

Derrick Lewis 17:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 17:02 I can imagine as big as you are, running, it's rough.

Derrick Lewis 17:06 Yeah, I'm sure it's rough. I don't like it. It's boring.

Joe Rogan 17:09 Yeah. But you... I mean, I guess you could do other kinds of cardio, long distance cardio, long, long duration cardio to try to drop some weight. But you'd have to try to change your diet too, right?

Derrick Lewis 17:19 Yes. Diet is the number one thing, but it's hard though. I'm living... I live right next to Popeyes and-

Joe Rogan 17:25 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 17:25 ...all these Whataburgers and all these fast food restaurants and it's like, it's like right there.

Joe Rogan 17:31 Listen, man. I'm a giant fan of Popeyes.

Derrick Lewis 17:33 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 17:33 Spicy chicken and beans and rice-

Derrick Lewis 17:35 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:35 ...it's hard to pass up. That beans and rice is good.

Derrick Lewis 17:37 Yes, it's deadly. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:39 It's a problem.

Derrick Lewis 17:40 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 17:40 But, like, if... Do you work with a nutritionist at all?

Derrick Lewis 17:43 I used to work with Lou Nutrition out there in New Jersey.

Joe Rogan 17:47 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 17:47 I used to work with him. But other than that, no. My wife, she's... She try to look up recipes here and there, but she still need a lot of work on it in the kitchen though.

Joe Rogan 17:56 Have you ever used the UFC's program with the trifecta meals?

Derrick Lewis 17:59 Yeah, I did and I didn't like it.

Joe Rogan 18:01 Didn't like it? Okay.

Derrick Lewis 18:02 It was trash.

Joe Rogan 18:04 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 18:04 I told them it's trash. I don't like it at all. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 18:07 What don't you like about it? It's not-

Derrick Lewis 18:09 It's no season, no, no flavor to it. You know.

Joe Rogan 18:12 Uh-huh. Yeah, I get it.

Derrick Lewis 18:13 ... whenever I spit in, um, the other guy's food, I really meant that. That shit was nasty.

Joe Rogan 18:17 Oh. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 18:18 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 18:18 That's right, you spit in his food.

Derrick Lewis 18:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:20 Why the fuck were they th- Was that Olenik?

Derrick Lewis 18:23 Yes.

Joe Rogan 18:23 Yeah. Why were they sending you Olenik's food?

Derrick Lewis 18:25 I don't know. I don't know. They probably just tryin' to get rid of that shit, because it was nasty.

Joe Rogan 18:28 D- You didn't send it back to ... I mean, they threw it out. They didn't give it back.

Derrick Lewis 18:31 I don't know if they sent it back or what, but ...

Joe Rogan 18:32 I don't think so. N- Definitely not after they saw the video.

Derrick Lewis 18:35 (laughs) Well, he don't speak English, so he probably didn't know what I was sayin' anyway.

Joe Rogan 18:39 Well, he sa- probably knew you were spittin' in his food.

Derrick Lewis 18:41 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 18:41 That's pretty universal.

Derrick Lewis 18:42 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 18:44 What kind of shit were they givin' him?

Derrick Lewis 18:45 Oh, I don't know.

Joe Rogan 18:46 Did it look boring? Chicken breasts?

Derrick Lewis 18:48 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 18:48 Boiled broccoli, that kinda shit?

Derrick Lewis 18:50 Well, he probably got somethin' good, because I don't order no nasty shit like that. That was nasty. I told him to put season on mines.

Joe Rogan 18:56 So, like, for Trifecta, do you get to pick what they send you?

Derrick Lewis 18:59 Yes, we get to pick.

Joe Rogan 19:01 So you can order somethin' that's got seasoning and some spicy food-

Derrick Lewis 19:04 Uh-huh. Yes.

Joe Rogan 19:05 ... and something good? Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 19:06 But whatever they was tryna give to him, it was not good.

Joe Rogan 19:10 No?

Derrick Lewis 19:10 Mm-mm.

Joe Rogan 19:11 Well, maybe he's got some weird diet he follows.

Derrick Lewis 19:14 Yeah, probably so. Probably so.

Joe Rogan 19:15 I don't know. He's an interesting cat, that guy.

Derrick Lewis 19:17 Yes.

Joe Rogan 19:17 He's not ... Like-

Derrick Lewis 19:18 But I never fought anyone like him. He's weird.

Joe Rogan 19:20 Crazy grappler.

Derrick Lewis 19:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:22 Finishes people f- when they're mounted on them, which is nuts.

Derrick Lewis 19:24 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 19:25 The only guy I've ever seen. I think he's done it twice. He gets him with that Ezekiel.

Derrick Lewis 19:29 Yeah. The on- when he g- he got me in, I guess, the Ezekiel, if that's what it was.

Joe Rogan 19:33 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 19:33 He got me in that position that was like, if my coaches never had told me about that the week of the fight, I wouldn't ever know what the hell he was doin'.

Joe Rogan 19:41 Yeah, it's weird.

Derrick Lewis 19:41 And so (laughs) it was like, I was kinda panicking because I w- he was suffocating me with his skin. It wasn't just a, a choke. It was just-

Joe Rogan 19:49 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 19:49 I couldn't breathe. So I was like panicking a little bit. Then he had said something in Russian then he let it go and smiled. I was like, "Shit." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 19:57 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 19:57 Appreciate it. (laughs) 'Cause he almost had me. I was like, "Shit," I was about to tap him 'cause I ain't know what was goin' on. So I was scared. I said, "Okay, appreciate it," and he hit me in my stomach. I said, "All right."

Joe Rogan 20:08 That's hilarious.

Derrick Lewis 20:08 "Keep doin' that."

Joe Rogan 20:09 Yeah, that guy's a, he's a unusual grappler. He just grabs ahold of people. He seems ridiculously strong.

Derrick Lewis 20:15 Yeah. Yeah. It was weird.

Joe Rogan 20:17 I've never seen anybody finish that, that move like he does, where he lets guys mount him. And like, he grabs ahold of their neck, he, he puts it like this-

Derrick Lewis 20:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:26 ... and then he like opens up so they think, "Oh, I'm gonna mount." And then moving them out-

Derrick Lewis 20:30 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 20:30 ... and he sinks it in-

Derrick Lewis 20:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:31 ... and he squeezes, and he presses you down. I wanna feel that. That's, that's a crazy move. I wanna know how he does that. I wonder if he's got like a certain setup he uses for that.

Derrick Lewis 20:41 Yeah, he's got, what, 80 fights? So ...

Joe Rogan 20:43 Yeah. He's been around.

Derrick Lewis 20:45 It's crazy.

Joe Rogan 20:46 Yeah, still loves it, I guess. He's in his 40s too.

Derrick Lewis 20:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:49 Deep in his 40s, right? 44?

Derrick Lewis 20:51 45 or something like that. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:51 45? Yeah. Wh- when do you think you're gonna stop? How old ... Do you have a number in your head?

Derrick Lewis 20:56 Um, it all depends. Um, if my body says, "Sit your ass down," or-

Joe Rogan 21:00 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 21:01 ... no, we can keep going. It also depends on the money, you know. Um ...

Joe Rogan 21:05 Right.

Derrick Lewis 21:06 If the money keep getting better like it is, um, we'll keep going until UFC say, "All right, we acknowledge."

Joe Rogan 21:13 Well, you're in a position now where, you know, you're at the top of the food chain, right? So you got Stipe who's about to fight Francis in a rematch. You've already beat Francis. And then you got John-

Derrick Lewis 21:24 I don't even count that as a beatin', Francis, you know, that fight right there.

Joe Rogan 21:27 That was a weird fight.

Derrick Lewis 21:28 I wish people don't even talk, bring that up no more.

Joe Rogan 21:30 Yeah, that was a weird fight.

Derrick Lewis 21:31 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 21:31 What was up with that fight?

Derrick Lewis 21:33 My back was hurting. I felt overweight the whole fight. I had knee issues. I had a bunch of problems with myself. And I don't know what was goin' on with him.

Joe Rogan 21:43 I think he was still fucked up because of the Francis fight. I think he was-

Derrick Lewis 21:46 The Stipe?

Joe Rogan 21:47 Excuse me. Yeah, the Stipe fight.

Derrick Lewis 21:49 (coughs)

Joe Rogan 21:49 Yeah, I think that Stipe fight just fucked with his head, and he just ... In fact, he got so tired in that fight and that Stipe overwhelmed him and beat him for the first time in the UFC and-

Derrick Lewis 21:59 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 21:59 ... yeah, I think it was just bothering him.

Derrick Lewis 22:01 I for sure would love to run it back though.

Joe Rogan 22:04 You, you've had some back issues over the years, right?

Derrick Lewis 22:06 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 22:07 What, what are the back issues?

Derrick Lewis 22:08 Um, it's my L4 and L5. Herniated disk.

Joe Rogan 22:11 You got like a bulging disk?

Derrick Lewis 22:13 Yes.

Joe Rogan 22:13 Herniated disk?

Derrick Lewis 22:13 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 22:14 What have you-

Derrick Lewis 22:14 Bulging and hernia, yes.

Joe Rogan 22:15 What have you done to fix it?

Derrick Lewis 22:16 Um, I had knee surgery after the Junior fight. Um, and so they were saying that my right leg was shorter than my left leg because that's how tight my back was.

Joe Rogan 22:28 Wow.

Derrick Lewis 22:28 And so they ended up having knee surgery again. They said that I was compensating on it. And so ever since I had the surgery, I haven't had any serious problems with it.

Joe Rogan 22:38 Really?

Derrick Lewis 22:39 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 22:39 That was it?

Derrick Lewis 22:40 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 22:40 Isn't it ... It's weird how everything's connected like that.

Derrick Lewis 22:42 Yes, it is.

Joe Rogan 22:43 Like a knee problem can fuck your back up.

Derrick Lewis 22:45 I've been having the knee problem for like four years before I got it fixed.

Joe Rogan 22:49 Was it meniscus?

Derrick Lewis 22:50 Yes, meniscus and it was partially tear, torn, um, ACL.

Joe Rogan 22:54 So did they replace the ACL?

Derrick Lewis 22:56 The ACL is still partially torn, but they replaced the meniscus, yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:00 So what did they use?

Derrick Lewis 23:00 The MCL, MCL is completely gone.

Joe Rogan 23:03 Oh, really?

Derrick Lewis 23:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:04 So did they reattach the MCL?

Derrick Lewis 23:06 Yes, they ...

Joe Rogan 23:06 How'd they do it? Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 23:08 They put some plastic things, anchors or whatever.

Joe Rogan 23:11 Oh, okay.

Derrick Lewis 23:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:13 And so now it's good to go?

Derrick Lewis 23:14 Mm-hmm. What happened, it, I had heard it, um, against Ruud Pots, he got me in a knee bar. It was-

Joe Rogan 23:21 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 23:21 ... real tight, and I didn't tap, and so ever since that fight, it been bothering me.

Joe Rogan 23:27 'Cause the one fight you had, the Fabricio Werdum fight, you had to pull out 'cause your back was so fucked up.

Derrick Lewis 23:32 Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 23:32 That was like the day of the fight, right?

Derrick Lewis 23:34 Yes.

Joe Rogan 23:34 What was it going on with that?

Derrick Lewis 23:36 Um, I couldn't move. I couldn't, um, even roll out of, out of bed. It was like a cramping, sharp pain in my lower back, yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:43 And that was just from the herniated disk?

Derrick Lewis 23:45 They, yeah, they ... The doctor came in and the coaches, and it was the size of my fist, the knot in my back.

Joe Rogan 23:51 Wow. It's crazy that it's all because of the knee.

Derrick Lewis 23:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:54 And so since the knee's fixed, now your back is good?

Derrick Lewis 23:56 Yes.

Joe Rogan 23:57 And did you have to do any es- back strengthening exercises or a- any ...

Derrick Lewis 24:02 Yeah, I, I had to do therapy, um, for like four months, and yeah, ever since I had done, I had finished all the lands, no more back problems.

Joe Rogan 24:13 That's pretty crazy.... do you fuck with yoga or anything like that?

Derrick Lewis 24:17 Um, they told me that yoga would help a lot. You know, I seen DDP been trying to reach out and help, trying to get me to do his yoga and stuff.

Joe Rogan 24:24 Have you been in contact with him?

Derrick Lewis 24:25 No.

Joe Rogan 24:26 I'll connect you.

Derrick Lewis 24:27 No.

Joe Rogan 24:27 He's great.

Derrick Lewis 24:27 No, I'm all right. No, I'm all right. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:28 Oh, come on, man. Come on, man. I wanna see you doing DDP yoga.

Derrick Lewis 24:33 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:33 He's a great guy too, you'd love him.

Derrick Lewis 24:36 Okay. Yeah, I guess, I, I'll give him a try. But I prefer, like, a woman try to teach me yoga, not no dude.

Joe Rogan 24:40 Oh, I understand.

Derrick Lewis 24:41 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:42 I understand. Yeah, he, he thinks it's different than regular yoga.

Derrick Lewis 24:46 That's what I heard, ays.

Joe Rogan 24:48 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 24:48 Yeah, he's-

Joe Rogan 24:48 Well, he has, like, dynamic tension at the yoga.

Derrick Lewis 24:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 24:51 You know, he did, he add, he does yoga, but he adds, like, a bunch of other moves that go with it.

Derrick Lewis 24:55 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 24:55 It's really tough. It's a very good workout.

Derrick Lewis 24:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:57 And, you know, he's in his 60s and he can grab his foot and stick it straight up in the air and do, like, a standing split. It's crazy how flexible he is.

Derrick Lewis 25:04 Mm, I guess I'll give it a try since I got low T. So I'm just about... as close as a woman anyways. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 25:11 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 25:13 So. (claps hands)

Joe Rogan 25:13 (laughs) His whole thing was his back was so fucked up from pro wrestling.

Derrick Lewis 25:17 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 25:17 So using yoga, he strengthened his back and that, that allowed him to extend his career.

Derrick Lewis 25:23 Okay.

Joe Rogan 25:24 Yeah. I know a lot of guys whose back has been pretty fucked up and yoga is what saved them.

Derrick Lewis 25:29 Okay.

Joe Rogan 25:29 Yoga, yoga put it all together for 'em. That's why I brought it up. But I understand, a lot of manly dudes don't wanna be in there doing yoga.

Derrick Lewis 25:36 (laughs) Mm, especially with another man, you know? Mm.

Joe Rogan 25:40 I understand.

Derrick Lewis 25:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:41 Yeah, it's like getting a massage from another man. It's complicated. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 25:43 Yeah, I can't do that. I can't do it. I got, I like to relax, you know, like damn, you know.

Joe Rogan 25:48 Yeah. It's odd, but sometimes dudes are the only ones who could really get in there, get in there and work them muscles.

Derrick Lewis 25:54 Now, I know some big old Brock Lesnar-

Joe Rogan 25:56 Corn-fed women? (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 25:57 Brock, Brock Lesnar form looking women that really get in there with the same haircut and everything, so...

Joe Rogan 26:04 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 26:05 Shout out to Ms. Linda. Appreciate it. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 26:07 Same haircut and everything. That's hilarious.

Derrick Lewis 26:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:11 So what is like a, a, a typical training day for you? Do you do, do you do straight... Do you ever do straight jujitsu, or do you do just straight on MMA training? Like, what do you do?

Derrick Lewis 26:22 Um, now I do strength and conditioning for a hour. Then, after that, like, I rest for, like, three hours. Then I go back and do jujitsu and striking at the same time.

Joe Rogan 26:35 So you just, MMA-style workout?

Derrick Lewis 26:37 Yes.

Joe Rogan 26:37 So you just, everything is... So, um, when you say you do strength and conditioning for an hour, you do that every day?

Derrick Lewis 26:42 Yes. Um, Monday, I guess, not anymore, it's Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I do that.

Joe Rogan 26:49 Is... And so every day is two a days? Or do you have sometimes one workout a day? Like, how you doing?

Derrick Lewis 26:54 Yeah, some... Wednes- Tuesdays and Thursdays is one, one a day.

Joe Rogan 26:59 And how did you... Is this from trial and error? Like, did you try different ways of doing it and different ways of setting up your camps and this is what you found to be the best for your body?

Derrick Lewis 27:09 Um, I really just don't like training.

Joe Rogan 27:12 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 27:12 I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't even, like, I don't like doing none of this. You know, I really just do it just to take care of my family. I do it just enough if, okay, I can last three rounds, so I can... I'm gonna train just the last three rounds. If I gotta train five rounds, I'm like, "Damn."

Joe Rogan 27:29 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 27:29 Okay. (laughs) All right. I'm gonna try to train as much as I can just the last, at least four and a half rounds.

Joe Rogan 27:37 But if you're gonna fight for the title again, you're gonna have to fight five rounds.

Derrick Lewis 27:40 Yeah, I know I'm gonna have to fight five rounds. That's the only thing that scares me.

Joe Rogan 27:44 But you wanna be the champ.

Derrick Lewis 27:45 I wanna be the champ, but it's not my main goal is to be the champ. My main goal is to be rich like you.

Joe Rogan 27:51 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 27:51 You know? And I ask people questions, but yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:55 I under- (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 27:57 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 27:57 But the best way to be rich is to be the champ. That's, like, your best path. And you have a, like, a legit shot at being the heavyweight champion of the world. That, I mean, that's gotta mean something.

Derrick Lewis 28:08 It just... My name and mixed with heavyweight champion of the world is so crazy because my past and the stuff I've been through in my life, it just wouldn't be real.

Joe Rogan 28:17 Well, tell me about your past. Like what, what about it makes it seem less real?

Derrick Lewis 28:22 Um, I guess, you know, like, going through the system and stuff like that for so many years and being counted out and being left, left behind by family members and friends and stuff like that, and everyone turning their back on you. Then, being on top of the world and top of the, the s- the sport and stuff like that and my name mentioned, um, by other great people in the world and stuff like that. And now other people are looking up to me than being heavyweight champion of the world just be unbelievable feeling.

Joe Rogan 29:00 Well, it's gotta be unbelievable already, right?

Derrick Lewis 29:02 Yes. Yes, it is.

Joe Rogan 29:02 I mean, you're, you're one of the top-

Derrick Lewis 29:03 It is.

Joe Rogan 29:03 ... heavyweights on the planet Earth.

Derrick Lewis 29:06 It is. It is.

Joe Rogan 29:06 What are you? You gotta be ranked, like, number two right now, right?

Derrick Lewis 29:09 Yes. I'm number two. Yeah. It's, it's a crazy feeling. You know, I try not to think about it because it really don't feel real, you know. Just feel like one of those highs that you wish you never been this high. I don't wanna be this high anymore.

Joe Rogan 29:24 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 29:25 I'm sure they'll show you, add it. 'Cause I already be on the mushrooms and stuff like that.

Joe Rogan 29:29 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 29:29 I'm like, "No."

Joe Rogan 29:31 Yeah. I understand.

Derrick Lewis 29:32 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 29:32 So, like, so tell me about your past. Like, what, what about... Like, when you're saying going through the system, you mean the judicial system? Like, what, what about your past was, uh...

Derrick Lewis 29:42 Yeah, I've been, like, in prison and stuff like that. I did three and a half years in prison.

Joe Rogan 29:47 For what?

Derrick Lewis 29:48 For assault, aggravated assault, uh, street fight.

Joe Rogan 29:51 I don't see you assaulting people. That's weird.

Derrick Lewis 29:54 Oh. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 29:56 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 29:56 I'm kidding.

Joe Rogan 29:57 Well, you shouldn't have been at my courthouse. You should have been in, talking, telling that to the judge. I would have said that to the judge.

Derrick Lewis 30:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:03 "Your Honor, I think, I think this is a mistake."

Derrick Lewis 30:04 Yeah. (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:07 Yeah. So three and a half years for that.

Derrick Lewis 30:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 30:09 And so people wrote you off. They felt like this is just... You're just gonna be trouble your whole life.

Derrick Lewis 30:14 Yeah. Especially, I had a full scholarship. Um, I was already... I played the year.I ended up getting probation for that, and I ended up playing a year of college at Kilgore Junior College. And I ended up violating because I didn't have a job and I had to pay my fines and fees and show up to my, um, meetings, which no one wanted to help me go in to do. And so I ended up getting violated, um, from that and, and it was only a two-year probation at the time, just a vacation, and so no one wanted to help me, um, to go to my class and help me pay my fines, stuff like that, because I was in college, you know, didn't have any money. And so they violated me, I went to prison for ... On a five-year sentence, but I got parole three and a half years.

Joe Rogan 31:05 So you went to prison because of the violation of not paying the fines?

Derrick Lewis 31:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 31:09 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 31:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:10 The, the, the feeling of being counted out by the system, that's, uh, one of the main problems that most people have with our justice system-

Derrick Lewis 31:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 31:18 ... is that it doesn't really rehabilitate people.

Derrick Lewis 31:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 31:21 It makes people feel like there's no hope and in a lot of ways, it makes them resign themselves to a life of crime.

Derrick Lewis 31:27 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Then it's really not, no, nothing they can really do to help somebody to re- rehabilitate their self, you know, whenever they get out. It's no programs they can really, like jobs and stuff. They, there's some jobs, but not really good-paying jobs, like, that they'd really need to really, um, survive out here.

Joe Rogan 31:48 So from going from that to becoming a successful martial artist, like and to be ... And I know you don't think you practice martial arts but you definitely do.

Derrick Lewis 31:58 Hmm. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 31:59 But to be a successful fighter, you've, you've, uh, you've changed your future. But I think you've also opened up a lot of people's eyes that maybe they can change their future too. If a guy like you can do it, then what's the difference between you and a lot of other people? Not much difference.

Derrick Lewis 32:16 Yes. My brother remind me of that all the time. He thinks, he thinking that it, that fighting is so easy because I can do it, that he believe that he can do it. I'm telling him, it's completely different, it's not-

Joe Rogan 32:28 Is your brother big like you?

Derrick Lewis 32:29 Yeah, he's big, yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:30 Can he fight?

Derrick Lewis 32:32 Well, he can fight in the streets. You know, it's completely different fighting in the streets than-

Joe Rogan 32:35 Right.

Derrick Lewis 32:35 ... mixed martial arts. But, yeah, in the streets he can fight.

Joe Rogan 32:38 How old's your brother?

Derrick Lewis 32:39 He's 31.

Joe Rogan 32:41 I'm recruiting him right now. How much does he weigh? What does he look like?

Derrick Lewis 32:43 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:43 Where's he at? Where's he at?

Derrick Lewis 32:43 He's about 250.

Joe Rogan 32:44 Oh, there we go. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 32:48 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:48 Well, listen then.

Derrick Lewis 32:48 But he's short though, he's short.

Joe Rogan 32:50 Yeah?

Derrick Lewis 32:50 He's like 5"10'.

Joe Rogan 32:52 So is Daniel Cormier, right?

Derrick Lewis 32:53 Yeah, yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:57 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 32:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:57 You can be short and still be the heavyweight champion of the world.

Derrick Lewis 32:59 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:00 I mean, Mike Tyson too.

Derrick Lewis 33:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:01 You know?

Derrick Lewis 33:02 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:03 Yeah, but he's, uh, is he interested in doing it?

Derrick Lewis 33:07 Yeah, he is. But I'm, I, I told him, "No, you're not doing it."

Joe Rogan 33:10 Really?

Derrick Lewis 33:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:11 Why?

Derrick Lewis 33:12 Because my brother too ghetto, first of all. It wouldn't, the world wouldn't be able to handle someone like him.

Joe Rogan 33:20 Really?

Derrick Lewis 33:20 He's too outspoken and he's real ghetto.

Joe Rogan 33:23 Man, I don't know, if you could tell him to tone it down a little bit, we might have-

Derrick Lewis 33:26 (laughs) Well, I, I tell him that every day whenever I talk to him. You see how he's going live and just wanna be ghetto all the time, say, "You can't be doing that, you gotta learn how to turn it off and on." And he's like, "No."

Joe Rogan 33:36 Is he the guy you get your Instagram clips from?

Derrick Lewis 33:40 No. No. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:42 (laughs) Dude, you get the best Instagram page out of any MMA fighter. I check your shit every day.

Derrick Lewis 33:49 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:49 I do, I check your shit every day 'cause there's always something wild that you have posted.

Derrick Lewis 33:52 Yeah. Somebody reported me for something just now.

Joe Rogan 33:55 Ah, you fucking rat.

Derrick Lewis 33:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:57 What was it?

Derrick Lewis 33:58 They reported me. It's the video I posted, um-

Joe Rogan 34:00 Which one?

Derrick Lewis 34:00 ... of the kid getting ... He ran into the back of the truck and he was getting pulled by the truck.

Joe Rogan 34:04 That one?

Derrick Lewis 34:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:05 Yeah, the guy was slid, with the rope, hanging onto the rope?

Derrick Lewis 34:07 Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:07 You got reported for that one?

Derrick Lewis 34:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:08 That's so tame. They should see all your other shit.

Derrick Lewis 34:10 I know, I'm like-

Joe Rogan 34:11 They reported you for that?

Derrick Lewis 34:12 Yeah. So I, I, now what I do, I just keep 'em on there for a few hours or maybe a day or so-

Joe Rogan 34:17 And then delete it.

Derrick Lewis 34:18 ... and then I delete them.

Joe Rogan 34:18 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 34:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:19 Uh, yeah, I almost hesitated telling people how good your Instagram was 'cause I didn't want you to get in trouble-

Derrick Lewis 34:23 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 34:23 ... 'cause they were so fun. 'Cause it's always, dude's getting fucked up and it's always, he's okay.

Derrick Lewis 34:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:28 When you know that motherfucker's not okay. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 34:30 (laughs) That's why I started doing, because I was getting reported a lot and I was like, "Okay, he's okay."

Joe Rogan 34:35 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 34:35 And people start asking, "What's the backstory? Is they don't care?" Um, s- he's okay. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 34:39 (laughs) There was a lot of dead people that were on your Instagram for fucking sure. Yeah, the, and you ... Don't ... Aren't you selling a He's Okay shirt?

Derrick Lewis 34:47 Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:48 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 34:48 We sold out. We sold out, yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:50 Oh man, I-

Derrick Lewis 34:51 He's Okay, She's Okay is sold out.

Joe Rogan 34:52 I need a He's Okay.

Derrick Lewis 34:53 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 34:54 If she's okay, I feel bad. I feel bad with ... I don't know why, man, but when girls get fucked up in those videos, it makes me feel bad.

Derrick Lewis 35:00 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 35:00 When dudes get fucked up, I don't feel bad at all.

Derrick Lewis 35:02 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 35:03 It doesn't bother me at all. Snoop's got a great page too.

Derrick Lewis 35:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:06 Snoop's always posting people getting fucked up. But he posted this one girl, she was drunk and she was on the top of a truck and the truck pulled off-

Derrick Lewis 35:12 Oh, I seen that, yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:12 ... and she fell and landed on her head.

Derrick Lewis 35:13 Yeah, I posted that.

Joe Rogan 35:14 Yeah, there it is. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 35:15 (laughs) I told the lady that did that, I'm like, "Damn, I know my head is messed up, but she really had cropped the hell out of my head."

Joe Rogan 35:25 Yeah, what did she do? She made your head smaller?

Derrick Lewis 35:27 In my ear too, in my ear.

Joe Rogan 35:28 She's like, "His head's too big."

Derrick Lewis 35:29 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 35:29 "I'm gonna make it smaller." She did, she shrunk your head.

Derrick Lewis 35:32 She messed my ear. Look at my ear, my right ear.

Joe Rogan 35:34 Yeah. It should-

Derrick Lewis 35:34 I don't have no hair.

Joe Rogan 35:35 It looks like she took like a half inch off the right side of your face. Just a, just a rough Photoshopping job there.

Derrick Lewis 35:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:40 Yeah, it's just terrible.

Derrick Lewis 35:41 Well ...

Joe Rogan 35:41 Yeah, well.

Derrick Lewis 35:42 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 35:42 People think they know better, like, "Oh, his head's too big." (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 35:47 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 35:47 When did you start posting fucked up things on Instagram like that?

Derrick Lewis 35:51 Um, shit, I don't even know. Probably, um, 16, 17?

Joe Rogan 35:59 See this one? Which one? The ... Yes, the guy with the hot dog. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 36:03 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 36:04 He stuck a hot dog in the dude's pants, wake him up and cuts his eye off. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 36:09 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 36:10 (bang) Ah! Uh. What does the UFC think about your page?

Derrick Lewis 36:14 Um, they used to have that one guy, Randy, he used to always call me every day telling me, "Oh, Dana White want you to take it down."... I'm like, "No. I'm not taking that down."

Joe Rogan 36:25 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 36:26 I said, "Hold on, give me a few more hours. I'm gonna leave it up a few more hours."

Joe Rogan 36:29 That's hilarious.

Derrick Lewis 36:30 And he used to call me every day, just saying they wanted it taken down.

Joe Rogan 36:32 Do you think it was really Dana White, though, or was it him? I bet w-

Derrick Lewis 36:35 That's what I was telling myself. It's probably Dana White.

Joe Rogan 36:38 I bet, Dana.

Derrick Lewis 36:38 I mean, it's probably on-

Joe Rogan 36:39 Him.

Derrick Lewis 36:40 ... him. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:40 Yeah. I bet that's-

Derrick Lewis 36:41 But then, then Dana White had messaged me one day. On one of the videos, a guy had jumped off the roof when he was trying to jump in the pool, but he ended up-

Joe Rogan 36:50 Messing?

Derrick Lewis 36:51 ... slipping on the roof and landing head-first.

Joe Rogan 36:54 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 36:54 And Dana White said, "Oh, why, what happened to that video?" I said, "Well, I took it down." And he said, "Send it to me."

Joe Rogan 37:02 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 37:02 And he ended up posting it on his page. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:06 (laughs) Yeah, let me-

Derrick Lewis 37:06 I said, "Okay."

Joe Rogan 37:08 Let me tell you something. If someone's saying take it down, it's not Dana.

Derrick Lewis 37:10 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:11 It's not Dana. I sent Dana some fucked up things.

Derrick Lewis 37:14 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:14 And he never, he never gets upset. Yeah, he's, he's fine with it. But you figured out a way to make your... So, I mean, y- how many followers you got now?

Derrick Lewis 37:22 Just about almost two million. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:25 Yeah, and I mean, a lot of it is people following you because of your fight career, but a lot of people are following because of some wild shit you post.

Derrick Lewis 37:31 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a lot of celebrities, too. Like, I didn't even know they were following me. And it's pretty cool, though. Um, got invited to, um, shoot some golf with, um, Scarface.

Joe Rogan 37:43 Really?

Derrick Lewis 37:43 That's pretty cool, yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:44 No shit. Look at this.

Derrick Lewis 37:45 Oh, look at that. Oh, look at him right there. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:47 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 37:49 Brotherho- Brothe- Brother Mob.

Joe Rogan 37:51 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 37:51 And Scarface.

Joe Rogan 37:53 Uh, I met Willie D when, uh, I, uh, did, uh, the improv in Houston and it was like-

Derrick Lewis 37:59 Mm.

Joe Rogan 38:00 Sometimes I get starstruck.

Derrick Lewis 38:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:01 You know, with him I got starstruck.

Derrick Lewis 38:03 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 38:04 'Cause when I was a kid, when I was delivering newspapers, I would listen to the Getto Boys-

Derrick Lewis 38:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:07 ... all the time. And I was like, "I can't..." Sometimes you meet people and you can't believe they're, that's really them.

Derrick Lewis 38:12 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:13 Like, like, "You're a real person?"

Derrick Lewis 38:14 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 38:15 Like, "Here you are, right here."

Derrick Lewis 38:17 Yeah, especially, yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:17 Then I had him on the podcast and it was great, but Jamie fucked up and half the tape got erased. Whoops.

Derrick Lewis 38:23 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 38:24 Whoops. The recording's good, but the, the, the video got fucked up. The hard drive filled up.

Derrick Lewis 38:30 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:32 (sighs) He'll come back again.

Derrick Lewis 38:33 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 38:34 He'll come back again. I'll apologize. It's the only time it's ever happened. It'll never happen again. Yeah, I had a chance to have Bushwick Bill on, but, uh, we, we, when we circled back, he apparently was in the middle of dying.

Derrick Lewis 38:43 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:43 And right when we circled back, he was already in the hospital.

Derrick Lewis 38:45 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:46 And then he died shortly after there, unfortunately, but, but I've always been a huge Getto Boys fan.

Derrick Lewis 38:52 Yeah, I love Getto Boys.

Joe Rogan 38:54 But, uh, Scarface was sick, too, right? Didn't he have a-

Derrick Lewis 38:57 Yeah, he's getting lung or something like that.

Joe Rogan 38:59 Get his kidney?

Derrick Lewis 39:00 He needed a, a transfer, yeah, a kidney trans-

Joe Rogan 39:02 Yeah. I think he needs a kidney transplant. Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 39:04 I think he still do. I'm, I'm not sure.

Joe Rogan 39:06 I think so, too. Yeah. So you golf a lot?

Derrick Lewis 39:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:09 Is that, like, your recreation shit?

Derrick Lewis 39:11 Yes.

Joe Rogan 39:11 That's what you like to do?

Derrick Lewis 39:11 Every week, every week, just about every week.

Joe Rogan 39:13 Yeah?

Derrick Lewis 39:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:14 What else do you do to relax?

Derrick Lewis 39:17 Um, just probably just go for a ride in, through the city. That's about it. Go for a ride and chill with my kids, my, my wife. That's about it.

Joe Rogan 39:26 Well, we were supposed to have a UFC. They were trying to have a UFC in Houston.

Derrick Lewis 39:30 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 39:30 They were trying to do the title fight in Houston, but apparently Texas was like, "Not yet."

Derrick Lewis 39:34 Yeah, it was, um-

Joe Rogan 39:35 Not yet.

Derrick Lewis 39:35 ... the mayor, he was already tripping about it being fully open, 100% open. He was already tripping. It went on the news, like, right away whenever that happened and he was saying that it was, it wasn't a good idea.

Joe Rogan 39:48 Look at Florida. They're fine.

Derrick Lewis 39:49 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:50 Florida is wide open.

Derrick Lewis 39:50 Yeah, I'm going to Florida next week, actually, in Miami.

Joe Rogan 39:53 Bro, they're wide open and they're fine. If you look at their cases-

Derrick Lewis 39:56 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 39:56 ... their cases are no worse than anybody else's.

Derrick Lewis 39:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:58 It's... And they have an old population.

Derrick Lewis 40:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:01 Florida, like, the numbers, the average age of people is higher than most places.

Derrick Lewis 40:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:06 And they're fine.

Derrick Lewis 40:07 It's a retirement home city, really.

Joe Rogan 40:09 Yeah. I think you gotta let people do whatever the fuck they wanna do. It's too long. It's been a year. You can't just lock everything down for a year, especially when we know what the disease really is.

Derrick Lewis 40:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:19 Like a year ago, everybody thought it was, like, the plague and it was gonna kill 10% of the population.

Derrick Lewis 40:23 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 40:23 It's, we know it's not now.

Derrick Lewis 40:25 But they was blaming everything on COVID. You get in a car accident, COVID.

Joe Rogan 40:31 Right, if someone died, you mean?

Derrick Lewis 40:32 Mm-hmm. Everything's c-

Joe Rogan 40:33 Yeah. Yeah, talk to me about your cars. What kind of cars you into?

Derrick Lewis 40:36 Ferrari, um-

Joe Rogan 40:37 You got a Ferrari?

Derrick Lewis 40:38 ... Lamborghini, yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:39 For real?

Derrick Lewis 40:39 McLaren.

Joe Rogan 40:41 For real?

Derrick Lewis 40:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:41 That's where you're spending all your money?

Derrick Lewis 40:43 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:43 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 40:44 Yeah, I buy houses, too. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:47 What kind of Ferrari you got?

Derrick Lewis 40:48 F12.

Joe Rogan 40:49 Really?

Derrick Lewis 40:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:50 Damn.

Derrick Lewis 40:50 It's the best sounding car in the world right there.

Joe Rogan 40:53 Oh, yeah. Pull up a, a picture of that F12. See if you can get a video of a Ferrari F12. That's a serious fucking car. That's the V12, right?

Derrick Lewis 41:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:02 Oh my god, that thing sounds good.

Derrick Lewis 41:02 With the straight pipe, i- IP8 E-Exhaust.

Joe Rogan 41:06 Yeah, my friend, uh, Kolyon Noir, he's a, a gun guy on Instagram. Maybe you've seen him. He's a famous, uh, like he po- posts all kinds of shit about guns. He just got one of those, too.

Derrick Lewis 41:17 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 41:17 Got a F12. But, yeah. That's a ridiculously fast car, too.

Derrick Lewis 41:21 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:22 Is that your favorite?

Derrick Lewis 41:24 My favorite cruise-around car. If I wanted to, like, embarrass somebody in speed, it's the McLaren, the 720.

Joe Rogan 41:31 Yeah?

Derrick Lewis 41:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:32 So how many cars do you have?

Derrick Lewis 41:34 One, two, three...

Joe Rogan 41:36 (clears throat) Look at that thing.

Derrick Lewis 41:38 About six.

Joe Rogan 41:39 Six?

Derrick Lewis 41:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:40 Let me hear this thing. (car revving) It's a beautiful sounding car. Look at that thing. Whoo. What color is yours?

Derrick Lewis 41:55 This red.

Joe Rogan 41:57 Mm. (car revving) Do you sometimes, like, get in it and go, "I can't believe I have a fucking Ferrari?"

Derrick Lewis 42:05 Every day, every day. It's the same way with my home, my house. I'm like, every day I'm like, I'm just sitting in the living room or sitting at the kitchen table and I just look around, like, "Can't believe it."

Joe Rogan 42:18 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 42:18 'Cause I've been in the house almost three years now and I still, like, can't believe it. And I pull up to it and I'm like, "Man, I can't believe it." Because I grew up in a 700 square foot home, you know, um-... in the projects in New Orleans and being in apartments just about all my life until, um, I got into the UFC. And so, like, living in a home like this is, like, so crazy. My whole life to right now is, like, so crazy. So that's why I really don't even really get high no more-

Joe Rogan 42:50 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 42:50 ... or really drink because I'm already feeling like on top of the world.

Joe Rogan 42:54 Yeah, you're high on life.

Derrick Lewis 42:55 Yes.

Joe Rogan 42:56 Yeah. Yeah, it's gotta be surreal. What is this here?

Derrick Lewis 42:59 Uh, this is my, um, Lamborghini.

Joe Rogan 43:01 Damn. (engine revs)

Derrick Lewis 43:02 It's a twin turbo.

Joe Rogan 43:03 Oh, look at that fucking thing. Which, uh, model is that?

Derrick Lewis 43:09 Huracan.

Joe Rogan 43:11 Jesus Christ. That's a good-looking car. There you go. What do you take this into a drag strip?

Derrick Lewis 43:21 Yeah. (engine revs)

Joe Rogan 43:27 (laughs) Look at Derrick Lewis. McLaren-

Derrick Lewis 43:29 They find everything, man.

Joe Rogan 43:30 ... Lamborghini, Ferrari.

Derrick Lewis 43:31 They find everything. I don't think my wife is back there.

Joe Rogan 43:34 Jamie's the best. He knows how to find shit.

Derrick Lewis 43:35 I mean, if my wife is back there, I mean, she'd be finding all kinda stuff. She'd say, "Oh, you was here, huh? Oh, you was doing this." I'd say, "No, I wasn't."

Joe Rogan 43:41 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 43:41 She'll pull up the receipts. I'm like, "Damn."

Joe Rogan 43:44 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 43:44 "Quick." I said, "Nah, that ain't me. (laughs) That's Shaq." They say me and Shaq look alike.

Joe Rogan 43:51 Shaq is a ridiculously-

Derrick Lewis 43:52 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 43:52 ... big person.

Derrick Lewis 43:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:53 Every time I'm around Shaq, I can't believe we're the same thing. He's, his hands are so big. Like, you shake his hand-

Derrick Lewis 43:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:58 ... like, my hand disappears inside of his hands.

Derrick Lewis 44:00 His hands. I'm like a point guard next to Shaq. It's so crazy.

Joe Rogan 44:04 When, when you see a guy like Shaq, what's crazy is, like, he couldn't fight in the UFC 'cause he's too big.

Derrick Lewis 44:08 Too big, yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:09 That doesn't make any sense to me. Like, why, why do they have-

Derrick Lewis 44:11 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 44:11 ... a weight limit for heavyweight?

Derrick Lewis 44:13 I don't know. It don't make any sense to me either, so.

Joe Rogan 44:16 I don't get it. Like, why do you have to reach 265? That seems so silly to me.

Derrick Lewis 44:20 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 44:20 'Cause there's a super heavyweight, right? Isn't there?

Derrick Lewis 44:22 Yeah, super heavyweight.

Joe Rogan 44:23 Yeah, but there's no division. It's not real.

Derrick Lewis 44:25 I guess they feel like that it would be too fat and slow and everyone would get tired real quick.

Joe Rogan 44:32 Maybe.

Derrick Lewis 44:32 I don't know.

Joe Rogan 44:33 Well, what does Lebron James weigh? He's gotta weight 290. Good. What does he weigh? He might be slimmed down. I remember-

Derrick Lewis 44:38 No, he's too thick.

Joe Rogan 44:38 ... them saying 280 was the claim, like, 10 years ago. Yeah, okay. So let's, let's- I think it's, like, 28. ... assume... Okay, let's think he's 20... It's 280. Let's say he's 280. He's not getting tired. Like, you could be a 280 super athlete. You don't have to- He's probably 265 solid right now, you know. Hmm. That's what he says. I just think it's weird that there's a limit on the heavyweight division.

Derrick Lewis 45:00 Yeah. It'd be good if they change it.

Joe Rogan 45:03 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 45:03 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 45:04 So in a way, not in a way, but, like, for sure, you're living the American dream.

Derrick Lewis 45:08 Yes.

Joe Rogan 45:09 In a, in a, in a good way because, like, y- it wasn't good. Your life wasn't good in the beginning.

Derrick Lewis 45:14 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 45:14 And now it's ama- amazing.

Derrick Lewis 45:16 Yeah, it's pretty amazing. You know, I can't complain about anything really. You know, even the bad days, I really can't complain about it, you know, 'cause so crazy. And now it's like, I'll try to help a lot of my family members out, but they still trying to find ways to burn me at the end, you know?

Joe Rogan 45:34 Your family members?

Derrick Lewis 45:36 Yeah, I bought just about all of them cars, like, cash cars. And less than a few months, they sold all of them. Like, e- each. My brother and sister, my mom, they all sold their cars, um, for the cash.

Joe Rogan 45:49 Oh, no.

Derrick Lewis 45:50 Yeah, and there was... Had some type of crazy excuse, but it was all good, you know.

Joe Rogan 45:57 Do you have a lot of people asking you for money now?

Derrick Lewis 45:59 Every day.

Joe Rogan 46:00 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 46:01 You know, I already know what- what's the setup gonna be soon as someone texts me or call me that I haven't talked to in a long time. I already knew-

Joe Rogan 46:08 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 46:08 ... what kinda story they about to, um, talk about before they ask for money.

Joe Rogan 46:12 You gotta do what I do. Change-

Derrick Lewis 46:14 I change my number.

Joe Rogan 46:14 ... Change your number. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 46:15 Bro, I change my number. I change my number all the time. I change my number all the time, and my wife-

Joe Rogan 46:20 Yeah, I do it.

Derrick Lewis 46:20 ... my wife thinks, oh, it's because some female or something like that. No, it's not really no females. It's no females at all. It's just, like, family members or some other guy that's trying to get an interview with me that someone gave my number to.

Joe Rogan 46:35 Yeah, that, that becomes a problem too, right?

Derrick Lewis 46:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:37 Yeah. Yeah, this, uh, that's the problem, right? More money, more problems.

Derrick Lewis 46:43 It's 100% true.

Joe Rogan 46:45 Yeah, real.

Derrick Lewis 46:45 So true.

Joe Rogan 46:46 And as you become more and more successful, it's gonna be a bigger issue still. Like, if you become the champ-

Derrick Lewis 46:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:53 ... then it's gonna be crazy.

Derrick Lewis 46:55 Oh, it's crazy now. I already know. I, I got men follow home, like, three times already.

Joe Rogan 47:00 Really?

Derrick Lewis 47:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:01 By fans?

Derrick Lewis 47:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:02 Do they ever knock on your door?

Derrick Lewis 47:03 Usually... Twice it was by some, like, different... It was couples. And twice it was, like, the woman was driving and the guy was in the passenger side wanting a picture.

Joe Rogan 47:15 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 47:15 Like, he's making his girlfriend follow me to my house-

Joe Rogan 47:20 Jesus Christ.

Derrick Lewis 47:20 ... to take a picture. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:23 Yeah, it's, it's weird shit being famous, isn't it?

Derrick Lewis 47:26 Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:28 But for you, I mean, to, to come from being incarcerated, not having hope, into being in this position now, and, I mean, I can only imagine. It's gotta be completely surreal.

Derrick Lewis 47:41 Surreal. That's what I say. It's, like, I really don't need to get high on nothing or-

Joe Rogan 47:46 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 47:46 ... drink anything. But it's cool, though. It's, it's a plus, you know, smoke a little weed here and there.

Joe Rogan 47:52 Yeah, relax.

Derrick Lewis 47:53 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:54 Relax. Take the edge off.

Derrick Lewis 47:55 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:56 But does it give you more motivation to keep pushing too? Because-

Derrick Lewis 47:59 (clears throat)

Joe Rogan 47:59 ... you realize that what has been possible. I mean, you've, you've done an amazing thing with your life.

Derrick Lewis 48:04 Yeah, so it gives me a lot of motivations on, like, 'cause I know how easy it is to slip up and go back into those situations 'cause it was nothing but a street fight that ended, ended bad for the guy I was going against. And ended up having to serve almost five years for it. So it could still happen. I could, I walk out of here and get in a street fight with someone and be, probably be way worse situation.

Joe Rogan 48:32 I think you got better lawyers now. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 48:37 (laughs)

Narrator 48:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:37 I think. But you're not a... Yo- you're an easygoing guy.

Derrick Lewis 48:40 Yeah. Now I am. Yes.

Joe Rogan 48:42 Now you are?

Narrator 48:43 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 48:43 But you weren't back then when you were a young girl?

Derrick Lewis 48:44 Back then, I was just... I think I had a lot of anger built up in me. I wish... I still do now, but back then it was a lot more. Um, I believe it was just the way I was raised, you know. Um, wasn't showed that much love, you know, in my household and m- just of family circle. You know, I believe that's what led to a lot of my, um, my troubles in the street.

Joe Rogan 49:10 That's, that's a lot of young men.

Derrick Lewis 49:11 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 49:12 Yeah. Do you feel like, um, you have a d- a second chance with your children to show them love because you didn't get that kinda love when you were younger?

Derrick Lewis 49:21 Oh, yeah. For sure, you know. (laughs) My kids is like completely different than how I was raised, you know. I'm so happy that they're like making straight As in school and making the honor roll every oth- every year, and getting already getting scholarships and stuff like that, um, to go to big colleges. And so, it's like already is... My life is already unbelievable as it is, and just seeing that, that's like make me so proud.

Joe Rogan 49:49 That's beautiful.

Derrick Lewis 49:49 Yeah, so proud.

Joe Rogan 49:51 That's amazing, man. That's what everybody wants, right?

Derrick Lewis 49:53 Yes.

Joe Rogan 49:53 What everybody wants is like a happy life where it all comes together.

Derrick Lewis 49:57 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 49:57 And I, I think (clears throat) with a person like you, you really appreciate it because it wasn't always like this, right?

Derrick Lewis 50:02 Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. So, I, I don't... I tell people all the time, I don't regret, I don't, you know, wish nothing like that would happen, but I believe that I had to go through that situation to, to be a better person than I am today. So, it's like raising, being raised without a father figure and stuff like that, I feel like to me... Everyone is different. To me, I felt like I had to go through that situation to be a better father, be a better man here today because if not, then I was for sure would have been going in and out of there, you know.

Joe Rogan 50:35 For a lot of guys (clears throat) growing up, uh, with a bad situation like without a father figure, that's ultimately ironically what makes them great. Like-

Derrick Lewis 50:46 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 50:47 ... having this thing that you're missing when you're young, having these deficits in your life, having like a lack of love and all that, it gives you all this motivation and it makes you... It gives you all this energy to do something with your life. It's, it's ironic because like everybody... Like I want nothing but good things for my family, but all of my interesting friends had fucked up lives, like all my favorite people. All the people that I know with the most character, their, their, their childhood was chaos.

Derrick Lewis 51:14 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 51:15 But I don't want my kids to go through that. You know? I want my kids to have a nice easy life.

Derrick Lewis 51:20 Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:21 It's ironic.

Derrick Lewis 51:21 (clears throat) Nowadays, you, you really have to really talk to your kids now, even though they doing everything good in school and they quiet, but now it's like the suicide rate is so high, you never know what's really going on inside their head, you know. Um, even though they're not in the streets or doing anything bad, but they stay in their room all day long. Like, s- my, my oldest daughter, she's 17, and she stays in her room all the time and like we... Me and her mom, we talk to her all the time, and, and sure enough that she had those thoughts like suicide, and-

Joe Rogan 51:55 Is she staying in the room because school's closed or she's just... Has she always been like that?

Derrick Lewis 52:00 Um, she always been like that. You know, um, just to herself, and she just want friends and stuff like that. We try to like tell her to go out and try to make friends and stuff like that, but... With her, she want friends so bad that she willing to pay for their friendship, you know. Like-

Joe Rogan 52:19 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 52:20 ... give them money and just buy 'em gifts and stuff like that. Try to tell her it's not the way to do it, and so she's in a real bad place right now. So we still try to talk to her.

Joe Rogan 52:31 That's terrible. Um, have you thought about getting her involved in something where she can meet people that are doing things she does, like some kind of... either a sport or an activity or...

Derrick Lewis 52:42 Yeah. Um, some type of art class.

Joe Rogan 52:45 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 52:45 Art, because she's a real good artist. She like the Japanese art. She could really draw really good.

Joe Rogan 52:52 Like anime, you mean?

Derrick Lewis 52:53 Yeah, anime. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:54 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 52:54 Mm-hmm. So we're trying to get her involved in something like that. So, that's about the only issue with her.

Joe Rogan 53:02 That sucks.

Derrick Lewis 53:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:04 It's... I think it's really hard for kids today with social media too. Social media-

Derrick Lewis 53:07 With social media. Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 53:09 There's a, uh, a book called The Coddling of the American Mind by this guy named Jonathan Haidt, and inside that book he talks about how there's a spike related to... In suicides and self-harm, particularly among girls, that's directly related to the invention of social media.

Derrick Lewis 53:24 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 53:24 'Cause people are make... They're fucking assholes on social media.

Derrick Lewis 53:28 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:29 And a lot of girls are comparing their life to other girls' lives and, and the g... You know, they're, they're comparing their pictures to other girls' pictures when these girls' pictures are photoshopped-

Derrick Lewis 53:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 53:38 ... and they're changing... They're doing what they did to your head and shrinking the heads-

Derrick Lewis 53:41 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 53:42 ... and shaking the bodies. I mean, that's what they do, and, you know, people look at other people and they, they feel like... They, they just feel like they're not as good and it leads to a lot of bad things w- along with the bullying. It leads to a lot of bad things.

Derrick Lewis 53:56 Yeah. And this is something I didn't know women do. They go to stores and take pictures with purses and stuff like that, or jewelry, then they go to the restroom and take pictures, make it seem like they're... they bought all those things.

Joe Rogan 54:12 Mm.

Derrick Lewis 54:12 And come to find out they didn't, and that's the thing that's trending right now in Houston. They go to the, um, the Post, Post Oak Hotel and they got a lot of cool stuff over there and they make it seem like they bought all this stuff.

Joe Rogan 54:27 Mm.

Derrick Lewis 54:27 When they really didn't.

Joe Rogan 54:28 Yeah, it's so weird showing people all your shit.

Derrick Lewis 54:32 Yeah.... huh.

Joe Rogan 54:33 It's a weird thing that people are doing today. It's just, social media's gotten everybody all fucked up, like, doing things for likes-

Derrick Lewis 54:40 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 54:40 ... and doing things for attention.

Derrick Lewis 54:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:42 And, and, and then, just paying attention to those likes. L- looking at it all day, checking to see what you got.

Derrick Lewis 54:47 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 54:47 You know? I think you're doing it the right way.

Derrick Lewis 54:49 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:49 Just s- show dudes jumping off roofs and shit.

Derrick Lewis 54:51 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 54:52 Getting pulled into trucks. At least it's real. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 54:55 (laughs) Yeah, it's crazy.

Joe Rogan 54:58 How old are you now, Derrick?

Derrick Lewis 54:59 36.

Joe Rogan 55:00 How long you think you're gonna be fighting for, if you had to guess?

Derrick Lewis 55:04 Um, I would like to stop fighting whenever I'm 40. That'd be great.

Joe Rogan 55:10 What's-

Derrick Lewis 55:10 But after 40, it just be embarrassing after that.

Joe Rogan 55:13 I seen, it seems like the bigger fighters, they have a longer career.

Derrick Lewis 55:17 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 55:17 And like, you r- you mature. That's always the thing with heavyweight boxing too. You ma- except for Tyson, of course, but you, you mature later in life, and, you know, you ... I think maybe bigger guys, they, they get more coordinated as they get older. They get a better-

Derrick Lewis 55:30 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 55:30 ... control of their body. But like, look at, uh, Jan Blachowicz. He's 38, you know-

Derrick Lewis 55:35 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 55:35 ... and he just won the title last year. And there's a lot of, uh, like top flight heavyweights that are in your age range, you know?

Derrick Lewis 55:44 Mm-hmm. Like DC, he won the title at 40, I believe.

Joe Rogan 55:48 Yeah, yeah.

Derrick Lewis 55:51 I don't know. It depends on my body. I'm feeling pretty good right now. Like my body been feeling good ever since the surgery, so we'll just see.

Joe Rogan 55:59 But you've had so much success and you've had this success because of your body.

Derrick Lewis 56:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 56:05 And because of your hard work and the, the fights you've won, do y- y- for a guy like you, it's like, you gotta have that in your head, like, "Man, like this is, this is what I'm using to make my life amazing."

Derrick Lewis 56:18 Yes.

Joe Rogan 56:18 Like, "How much more time does this thing got?"

Derrick Lewis 56:21 Mm-hmm. The thing about with me, you watch my fights, and it's like, I don't really don't take that much damage, like, being in, like, real wars, like, um, JDS has been in and, or-

Joe Rogan 56:33 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 56:34 ... the other guys at the top has been in. You know, Stipe been in a lot of wars and took a lot of damage. You know, I believe stuff like that will shorten your career quicker.

Joe Rogan 56:43 100%. How do you avoid taking damage?

Derrick Lewis 56:48 Um, I just, I guess, just go to weigh-ins looking scary as possible. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 56:52 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 56:54 But I don't know. You know? So ... I don't know.

Joe Rogan 57:00 Well, you ... Being big helps.

Derrick Lewis 57:02 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:02 And also, I think, your endurance helps too. You know?

Derrick Lewis 57:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 57:05 I think a lot of guys, uh, one o- one of the things that happens, they start fading and then they start getting beaten up.

Derrick Lewis 57:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:11 You know?

Derrick Lewis 57:11 (laughs) Yeah, that's the thing too, is like, I ... Like in my fights, I, I'm fighting with myself. I'm not even really worrying about my opponent. I'm fighting with myself the whole time, like-

Joe Rogan 57:23 How so?

Derrick Lewis 57:24 "All right, don't do this. Don't do this. Okay, you can throw this punch, but how do you feel after you're through with this punch? All right. You got a little tired right there. Okay. Take a little time. All right. You can throw right here. Okay. See how you feel." I'm trying not to get tired. I'm fighting myself. I'm trying not to get tired after every movement I do. And say, "Okay, you're tired right now, so, okay, wait, wait. All right. Wait till he clinch you, and then you clinch, then we probably could finish him right here."

Joe Rogan 57:51 Does that show you, uh, how important, uh, experience is? Because that's when you learn.

Derrick Lewis 57:56 Experience, yes. Experience from day one. S- my first amateur fight, I gassed real bad. I gassed so bad I had to put my hands on my knees. And like-

Joe Rogan 58:06 Hmm.

Derrick Lewis 58:06 ... even the guy was walking towards me, he was ... just was hitting me because I was just so tired. I didn't ... re- wasn't even feeling the punches anymore. So I didn't want to be in that situation anymore.

Joe Rogan 58:18 So now-

Derrick Lewis 58:20 (clears throat)

Joe Rogan 58:20 ... th- but that seems like it's not just endurance, right? It's knowing when to put on the gas and when to s- when to slow down.

Derrick Lewis 58:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 58:26 Knowing your body, right?

Derrick Lewis 58:27 Yes. Like, come, experience come into play. Um, I learnt a lot, like, being in the UFC, fighting all these different type of fighters. It's like, okay, they could have way more skills than me, and I feel like that if my endurance and conditioning is, is decent enough to, um, to finish the guy, no matter what round or how many seconds left in the fight, that I should be okay.

Joe Rogan 58:53 Jamie, I'm gonna send you something, is me reacting to him knocking out Volkov. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 58:58 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 59:00 This is one of my favorite, one of my favorite clips-

Derrick Lewis 59:03 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 59:03 ... because that knockout was so crazy. We were in the middle ... Here it is, right here. I'm gonna send it to you right now, Jamie. Yeah, I just, uh, AirDropped it to you. Wait a minute. Why is it not working? All right. Is it going through? I've got two Jamie Vernons here. You have my computer and phone crushed. Okay. I'll try both of them. You got it? Okay. So that fight, to me, was, uh, a perfect example of one of the reasons why people love you.

Derrick Lewis 59:35 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:35 Is because, at any moment in the fight-

Derrick Lewis 59:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:38 ... you get in that shit. And that was a fight where you were, you were behind on the judges' scorecards.

Derrick Lewis 59:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:44 And we were just saying, "It doesn't matter." Like-

Derrick Lewis 59:47 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 59:47 ... i- at any moment, Derrick could knock him out. Like-

Derrick Lewis 59:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:50 ... that's the thing that's e- exciting about you. But the UFC, because we go so crazy, the UFC's decided to put these cameras on us. Give me some volume on this. Oh! (cheering) (laughing) Look at Dennis Lavalt! They got Dennis Lavant! Volkov's done! Volkov's done!

Derrick Lewis 1:00:09 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:00:09 Look at everybody going crazy. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:00:12 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:00:12 We were going cr- I had to get up. I had to stand up.

Derrick Lewis 1:00:14 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:00:15 I couldn't take it. That was so nuts.

Derrick Lewis 1:00:17 Uh, my coach, um, my manager, my manager at home, he fainted 'cause we... (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:00:24 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:00:26 Lou, Lou say he fainted, like he couldn't take it either no more, because everyone was just so, so pumped about that. And I heard that, uh-... some police was called because my neighbors- our fans was, um, just going crazy after the fight.

Joe Rogan 1:00:39 Oh, man. Oh, that was-

Derrick Lewis 1:00:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:41 That was wild. That was one of the best come from behind knockouts ever. I mean, but it was- it was wild too because we just got done saying-

Derrick Lewis 1:00:47 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:00:47 ... like, "Don't count him out. At any moment, he could knock you out," and then boom, you catch him with a big punch-

Derrick Lewis 1:00:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:52 ... and then drop him, and then boom, put him away.

Derrick Lewis 1:00:54 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:00:54 We went nuts.

Derrick Lewis 1:00:55 I like it whenever my coach say, "Okay, we got a minute left, 30 seconds left." Then I'm like, "Okay, try to gain..." So I got- I have to let everything out. Um, s- a lot of my fights, I finish in the last few seconds of the fight. So I like to- to wait 'til the last minute or last two minutes left to really show what I got left in my tank. So...

Joe Rogan 1:01:19 But that shows your hard work-

Derrick Lewis 1:01:20 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:01:20 ... that you can keep that power in- in, like, d- deep into the fight. That means you did the work in the gym.

Derrick Lewis 1:01:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:01:27 Like, y- you still have the- the gas.

Derrick Lewis 1:01:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:29 Yeah. Was that your most satisfying knockout?

Derrick Lewis 1:01:33 That was, yeah. B- the crowd made it real exciti- satisfying because the way they reacted, you know, then seeing that one guy that played in, um, the one movie, um, Gr- um, Groot, Brute? What movie is that?

Joe Rogan 1:01:50 Which mov-

Derrick Lewis 1:01:50 Guardians- Guardians of the Galaxy?

Joe Rogan 1:01:52 Oh, Chris Pratt?

Derrick Lewis 1:01:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:53 Yeah, yeah, he's a big man.

Derrick Lewis 1:01:54 Seeing his- seeing his reaction, it was like-

Joe Rogan 1:01:57 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:01:58 It made it all worthwhile. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:00 Yeah, no, that was a big one. That was a big one.

Derrick Lewis 1:02:02 Yeah, I wished the fans was here for the Curtis fight.

Joe Rogan 1:02:05 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 1:02:05 I'm pretty sure they would've went crazy for that one too.

Joe Rogan 1:02:08 100%.

Derrick Lewis 1:02:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:08 I screamed in my house.

Derrick Lewis 1:02:10 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:10 I screamed in my house. My wife- e- every now and then in a fight, like, you know, when I'm watching fights at home, I scream.

Derrick Lewis 1:02:15 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:02:15 And then my- my wife has to realize I'm watching fights-

Derrick Lewis 1:02:18 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:18 ... 'cause I'm by myself in the theater going, "Ow!"

Derrick Lewis 1:02:20 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:21 Yeah, that was- that was one that, um, for sure would've got a giant reaction from the crowd.

Derrick Lewis 1:02:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:26 Is it th- yeah, is... So what is, like- do you have a- a favorite moment as a fighter? Or do you have- you s- you have so many knockouts.

Derrick Lewis 1:02:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:37 You have the most knockouts ever in the heavyweight division.

Derrick Lewis 1:02:39 Yeah, it's crazy, because I wasn't even really going for that. Um, my favorite one, uh, it- it has to be Volkov. It was Volkov 'cause I was telling my coaches in my camp before that fight, it's like, "I'm fighting a Russian guy. It'd be cool if I could, um, get one of those Rocky-type fights."

Joe Rogan 1:02:58 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:02:58 And sure enough, it was a Rocky-type fight. I mean, like, so crazy. So crazy, and it ended just like a Rocky movie.

Joe Rogan 1:03:06 Yeah, there it is. Boom!

Derrick Lewis 1:03:08 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:03:09 My goodness, that was crazy.

Derrick Lewis 1:03:10 Then, like, a few minutes before that, he's- I had hit him and he's saying that his mouthpiece was my mouthpiece. I said, "Nah, that's not my mouthpiece." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:03:19 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:03:19 I said, "He b- okay, I guess."

Joe Rogan 1:03:21 Yeah, that wa- that was pic- that- that KO, back up to the- the right hand again that drops him. That shit was picture perfect. There it is. Boom! I mean, timing, distance, everything. It was picture perfect. And the fact that you did this deep into the fight, look at this.

Derrick Lewis 1:03:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:42 Does it feel- does it feel surreal watching yourself?

Derrick Lewis 1:03:45 Oh, yeah, all the time. All the time.

Joe Rogan 1:03:49 When you watch yourself on television, like, what goes through your head when you see something like this?

Derrick Lewis 1:03:54 I'm like, "Man, I don't look that fat in person."

Joe Rogan 1:03:57 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:03:57 "I only look fat whenever I watch my highlight." Like, then you see me in person, like, "You lost some weight." "No, I ain't losing no weight. That's the TV."

Joe Rogan 1:04:05 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:04:06 The problem is that Fox Sports- Fox Sports- ESPN, I think I look a little smaller now. Fox Sports cameras make me look fat. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:04:14 Uh, I think everybody thinks they look fat when they see themselves on television. I think I look fat when I walk by a mirror.

Derrick Lewis 1:04:19 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:04:20 I'm like, "Come on, really? What is all this shit?"

Derrick Lewis 1:04:23 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:04:23 Yeah. But, you know, if you do drop down to, you know, whatever you want to get to, to 240 or two- uh, maybe- maybe then you can see a little six-pack.

Derrick Lewis 1:04:32 Yeah, then, you know, I'll walk around. I'd walk around with no shirt, but now I don't like walking around with a shirt- with no shirt in front of my sons. My boys, they always call me fat.

Joe Rogan 1:04:42 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:04:43 They still look at me... 'Cause they got six-packs, so it... Like, I make it seem like they don't bother me, but-

Joe Rogan 1:04:48 Bother you, though?

Derrick Lewis 1:04:49 ... I cry- I go and cry in a room. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:04:52 (laughs) How do they feel about their dad being one of the baddest motherfuckers on Earth?

Derrick Lewis 1:04:55 Oh, they don't care. They don't care.

Joe Rogan 1:04:56 They don't care?

Derrick Lewis 1:04:57 Yeah, the neighbors in the backyard, like, they lives behind us, saying, "We know who your dad is. Your dad is famous." And I heard my boys say- say something back to them saying that, "We know and we don't care."

Joe Rogan 1:05:10 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:05:11 So I'm like, "What? Don't..." I said, "Don't be mean to him." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:05:15 (laughs) They say they don't care, but they must care.

Derrick Lewis 1:05:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:18 They have to.

Derrick Lewis 1:05:19 They spoiled though. My wife spoils them. I try not to and try to give them lessons, make them earn everything that they- that they get.

Joe Rogan 1:05:27 Did they have any- any interest in fighting themselves?

Derrick Lewis 1:05:30 No, they wanted to fight. I wanted to box, and put them in boxing class, then now they saying they don't wanna get punched, so they don't wanna do that. They wanna play soccer. I say, "Okay, cool. Play soccer." I don't want them to fight either. I don't want them to play football.

Joe Rogan 1:05:44 Yeah. Football may be worse, right?

Derrick Lewis 1:05:46 Mm-hmm. Yeah, concussions and stuff like that.

Joe Rogan 1:05:49 Did you feel like that when you were playing football, that it was more dangerous than fighting?

Derrick Lewis 1:05:53 Not at all. That's all I wanted to do is play football.

Joe Rogan 1:05:55 Yeah?

Derrick Lewis 1:05:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:57 So if you had your way to go back, you would've done that instead?

Derrick Lewis 1:06:00 Yeah, I would've, um, played football. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:02 Do you-

Derrick Lewis 1:06:03 That was my number one sport.

Joe Rogan 1:06:04 You enjoy it more?

Derrick Lewis 1:06:05 Yeah, es- especially being in this situation and playing football, it was a team sport, so I couldn't really blame... (plastic clicks) Okay, it was- it wasn't my fault. It was-

Joe Rogan 1:06:16 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:06:17 ... the defensive tackle fault or it was the linebacker fault. But now, there's so much pressure on myself, like, "Okay, if- if I lose this fight, it's really all on me."

Joe Rogan 1:06:27 Yeah, but if you win this fight-

Derrick Lewis 1:06:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:28 ... it's really all you.

Derrick Lewis 1:06:30 Yes, yes.

Joe Rogan 1:06:30 Yeah. If somebody else scores a touchdown and you win, you're like, "Eh."

Derrick Lewis 1:06:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:06:35 But if you knock a motherfucker out, like you did Volkov ...

Derrick Lewis 1:06:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:39 ... that's you.

Derrick Lewis 1:06:40 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:06:41 I mean, listen, man, you have more knockouts than any heavyweight in the history of the sport.

Derrick Lewis 1:06:47 It's giving me goosebumps just hearing that, it's like ...

Joe Rogan 1:06:49 Isn't that crazy?

Derrick Lewis 1:06:51 Because I watched, like, the highlights of Randy Couture.

Joe Rogan 1:06:55 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 1:06:56 Seeing, uh, his highlights and all, like, Shane Coleman and stuff like that, the guys that was really knocking out everybody back then. It's like, for me to pass them is, like, so crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:07:08 You passed everybody.

Derrick Lewis 1:07:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:10 Is there any fighter from the past that you wish you, uh, were in the same era as them, so you could have fought them?

Derrick Lewis 1:07:16 I guess you could say Kimbo-

Joe Rogan 1:07:18 Kimbo?

Derrick Lewis 1:07:18 ... because everybody, like before I even got into UFC, they was asking me, "You think you could fight Kimbo?" I'm s- I'm like, "Yeah, I will fight him." And just like, everyone still asks me that. And they don't even know Kimbo passed away already.

Joe Rogan 1:07:32 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 1:07:32 And like, people that don't know anything about fighting really, still ask me, "Do you think you'll fight Kimbo one day?" And shit, I'm like, "Hope not." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:07:42 He was an interesting case, right? Because he made-

Derrick Lewis 1:07:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:44 ... he became famous thr- from the internet.

Derrick Lewis 1:07:46 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:07:46 Like one of the rare guys that became famous from street fights, from the internet.

Derrick Lewis 1:07:50 Yeah. That's, I believe that's when YouTube had came around too.

Joe Rogan 1:07:53 Mm-hmm.

Derrick Lewis 1:07:53 It's like-

Joe Rogan 1:07:54 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 1:07:54 ... that's when it really got popular because everyone was trying to go watch fights, really. That's really all you could really do back then on YouTube is watch fights.

Joe Rogan 1:08:02 Yeah, YouTube was in its infancy back then, right?

Derrick Lewis 1:08:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:05 There wasn't much going on on YouTube.

Derrick Lewis 1:08:07 Everybody just watched YouTube because of fights, but I didn't really know anything but else to do on YouTube but to watch street fights.

Joe Rogan 1:08:14 I admire that Kimbo went from that with no real, uh, experience in grappling-

Derrick Lewis 1:08:22 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:22 ... or kicking or anything, and then took a chance and fought in the UFC. I mean, that, that took a lot of courage.

Derrick Lewis 1:08:27 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was a big fan of his back then.

Joe Rogan 1:08:31 I mean, he was famous when he got into the Ultimate Fighter-

Derrick Lewis 1:08:35 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:35 ... and really didn't have a lot of experience in MMA. I mean, he fought a little bit in Elite XC-

Derrick Lewis 1:08:40 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:40 ... but, you know, relatively small amount of experience in martial arts, really. Just really had good hands.

Derrick Lewis 1:08:46 Yeah, I believe his career is similar to almost mines, and so, you know, I started following him back then too as well because I felt like the same way. You know, it was people would treat me the same way as well. Uh-

Joe Rogan 1:08:58 What do you think of this, uh, bare knuckle boxing that's going on now?

Derrick Lewis 1:09:02 Oh, I couldn't do it.

Joe Rogan 1:09:03 Yeah?

Derrick Lewis 1:09:04 I pray I'll never be in that situation where I have to be, like, going in there and fighting for financially, to be going against guys who like bare knuckle boxing and stuff like that. It just looks so painful.

Joe Rogan 1:09:17 Yeah, you get cut up.

Derrick Lewis 1:09:18 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:18 A lot of guys get cut up.

Derrick Lewis 1:09:19 Yeah, I'm already a ugly guy, so I can't really-

Joe Rogan 1:09:22 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:09:22 ... I can't, can't go in there like that.

Joe Rogan 1:09:25 Did you see the cut that Chris Leben got in his fight? Chris Leben g- y- see Chris Leben versus, um, what is his name? Dakota, Dakota Johnson? Is that his name? He fought this guy, and he had this, like an ax wound on his forehead. Like, people don't realize like how much ... Yeah, look at this.

Derrick Lewis 1:09:46 Damn.

Joe Rogan 1:09:46 Yeah, seriously. People don't realize like how much guys get cut open from just the, the bones or the knuckles. I used to wonder, I used to think that, like with the-

Derrick Lewis 1:09:57 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:58 ... fuck it.

Derrick Lewis 1:09:58 Knight.

Joe Rogan 1:09:58 Jesus Christ. Jason Knight got-

Derrick Lewis 1:10:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:01 ... fucked up too. And Artem Lobov, look at his face too.

Derrick Lewis 1:10:04 The GOAT. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:10:05 Yeah, both these guys... Both these guys, their faces just destroyed.

Derrick Lewis 1:10:09 Yeah. It's so crazy that they legalized that, though.

Joe Rogan 1:10:12 (coughs) Yeah. But is it? Like, 'cause you can elbow a guy in the face.

Derrick Lewis 1:10:16 You can elbow in that?

Joe Rogan 1:10:17 You can, you could ... No, but I mean-

Derrick Lewis 1:10:18 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:10:18 ... in MMA. And elbows slice people open too, but it just seems like you get sliced open more in this.

Derrick Lewis 1:10:26 Yeah. I don't know.

Joe Rogan 1:10:26 I just think it's crazy-

Derrick Lewis 1:10:27 I couldn't do it. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:28 ... that Paige VanZant's in there.

Derrick Lewis 1:10:30 Yeah, that was, that's crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:10:31 As pretty as she is.

Derrick Lewis 1:10:32 But I think that she got paid a few million for that.

Joe Rogan 1:10:34 Did she really?

Derrick Lewis 1:10:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:36 Wow. If they came around for a few million, would you think about doing it?

Derrick Lewis 1:10:39 Of course, yes. Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:10:40 That's the problem, right?

Derrick Lewis 1:10:41 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:10:42 How much are you getting paid for like a big fight in the UFC?

Derrick Lewis 1:10:45 (clears throat) I don't know if I sh-

Joe Rogan 1:10:47 You're not allowed to say it?

Derrick Lewis 1:10:49 Yeah, because-

Joe Rogan 1:10:49 Don't say it.

Derrick Lewis 1:10:49 ... the way they, they set, set it, the pay out right now, it's like ... I don't know.

Joe Rogan 1:10:55 I get it.

Derrick Lewis 1:10:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:56 No need to discuss it. But, so-

Derrick Lewis 1:10:59 It's pretty good though. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:11:01 Obviously. You got a Ferrari, a Lamborghini and a McLaren, you live in a big house. You're doing great.

Derrick Lewis 1:11:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:11:06 But, uh, I guess with Paige, she just wants to do it anyway and show everybody she's not just pretty, she's also a badass.

Derrick Lewis 1:11:12 Well, I thought she was just pretty. But, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:11:15 (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:11:15 But it's, I s- I watched, I watched the highlights of her, her last fight, and she did pretty good.

Joe Rogan 1:11:20 Uh, she's tough.

Derrick Lewis 1:11:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:11:21 She's tough. It's just, it's amazing that, uh, she's will- But I guess it makes sense if they're willing to pay her that amou- that amount of money.

Derrick Lewis 1:11:28 Yeah, money talks.

Joe Rogan 1:11:29 But there's a lot of fighters that are leaving the UFC, you know, that are at the end of their career, and then going over and transferring into bare knuckle boxing. But you just, you know-

Derrick Lewis 1:11:39 I'm just, hopefully, that, like, you know, like Bellator, PFL, and all the other leagues that's out there are really paying as good like I'm hearing.

Joe Rogan 1:11:49 Yeah, I hope that there's more competition like that.

Derrick Lewis 1:11:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:11:53 That fighters can negotiate-

Derrick Lewis 1:11:54 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:11:55 ... against, you know, other promotions.

Derrick Lewis 1:11:55 If it wasn't for them, then it would be like kind o- um, the negotiation would be harder-

Joe Rogan 1:12:00 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 1:12:00 ... for fighters. So I'm like, it's good that they're around.

Joe Rogan 1:12:04 Yeah, it is good that they're around. It's good that they're willing to, you know, the, th- they're willing to make big bids-

Derrick Lewis 1:12:11 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:12:12 ... on fighters that they think are, are worthwhile. Guys like Mousasi, you know, Ryan Bader, all these guys that are going over to Bellator, and ... But it's, uh-

Derrick Lewis 1:12:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:12:22 ... you need competition. And it was really strong when the UFC had Pride against them, and Pride was gigantic.

Derrick Lewis 1:12:29 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:12:29 Pride was as big as the UFC at one point in time.

Derrick Lewis 1:12:31 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:12:31 And, you know, it was a real legitimate competition, and then when the UFC bought Pride, for the longest time, there really wasn't much competition, you know?

Derrick Lewis 1:12:39 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:12:39 There was Strike Force at the time, then the UFC bought Strike Force.... it's not good for the fighters.

Derrick Lewis 1:12:44 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:12:45 It's not good for the business either.

Derrick Lewis 1:12:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:12:47 Like, it's better for everybody.

Derrick Lewis 1:12:47 No competition, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:12:49 Yeah. Like, look at boxing. You've got all these different promotions. You've got Mayweather, you've got Bob Arum-

Derrick Lewis 1:12:54 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:12:54 ... you've got, you know, Eddie Hearn. You got all these different promoters.

Derrick Lewis 1:12:57 That one guy who wear the dresses.

Joe Rogan 1:12:59 Guy that wears the dresses? Wears dresses?

Derrick Lewis 1:13:02 Um-

Joe Rogan 1:13:02 Who's that?

Derrick Lewis 1:13:03 De La Hoya.

Joe Rogan 1:13:04 Oh. (laughs)

Derrick Lewis 1:13:06 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:13:07 Golden boy.

Derrick Lewis 1:13:07 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:13:08 Yeah, that's right.

Derrick Lewis 1:13:09 Coke head. Coke head.

Joe Rogan 1:13:09 Yeah, yeah.

Derrick Lewis 1:13:09 That's why Dana called him coke head.

Joe Rogan 1:13:11 Yeah.

Derrick Lewis 1:13:12 Coke head.

Joe Rogan 1:13:12 The one guy that wears the dresses. I don't even think he was wearing dresses. He was wearing fishnets and high heels and shit.

Derrick Lewis 1:13:16 The fishnet, I think it was a dress too, though.

Joe Rogan 1:13:18 Cocaine's a hell of a drug.

Derrick Lewis 1:13:19 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:13:20 It's a hell