MMA

Daniel Cormier To Defend UFC Heavyweight Title Against Derrick Lewis At UFC 230 In MSG, Joanna vs. Shevchenko Back On UFC 231

Sean Ross SappOctober 9, 2018, 10:11 pm

UFC 230 finally has a suitable main event.

Weeks after Daniel Cormier said he wouldn’t be physically prepared to fight at UFC 230 in November in New York City, a championship title defense was confirmed on Tuesday by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. His challenger? Derrick Lewis, fresh off of an Alexander Volkov comeback KO win at Saturday’s UFC 229 pay-per-view. After the fight, Lewis said that “his balls were hot,” and he was in no cardio shape to compete for the UFC Heavyweight Title.

Daniel Cormier vs. Derrick Lewis for the UFC heavyweight title is a done deal for Nov. 3 on 11/3, per both sides. UFC 230 finally has its main event. First reported by @bokamotoESPN.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 9, 2018

Cormier joked while sitting next to Derrick Lewis at a UFC 206 pre-fight press conference that Lewis had been sizing him up and called him “small,” leading to Lewis saying the beef started over Cormier disrespecting Popeye’s Chicken.

Never forget how this feud started: pic.twitter.com/EwoKIBbmyE

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 9, 2018

With the heavyweight title fight now taking center stage at UFC 230, the Valentina Shevchenko vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk UFC Flyweight Championship fight later this year will now go forward. The planned fight with Shevchenko and Sijara Eubanks is off.

UFC 230 takes place Saturday, November 3 from Madison Square Garden in New York City. Fightful.com will have full, live coverage of the show, as well as pre-show interviews and a post-show podcast.