After a pair of successful appearances on the Contender Series with a victory at LFA 38 sandwiched in between, Lewis scored a UFC contract and was quickly thrown into the deep end of the middleweight talent pool in a matchup against divisional fixture Uriah Hall at UFC 238.
It didn’t go well for the emerging talent fighting out of Jackson-Wink MMA. A little over 90 seconds into the opening round of his UFC career, Lewis suffered his first loss, getting felled and finished by the former TUF finalist.
This weekend, the talented 28-year-old prospect makes his sophomore appearance in the Octagon opposite Darren Stewart, a durable Brit who has gone 2-4 with one no contest in seven previous UFC appearances.
There is a lot to like about Lewis, who is often compared to his teammate Jon Jones because of his exceptional reach, overall physicality and comparable fighting style. Expecting him to come out of the gates and replicate Jones’ rapid ascent would be foolish, and his bout against Hall showed that the middleweight prospect has some holes in his game that need patching, but the raw materials are there and with a little more seasoning and experience, Lewis could develop into someone of note in the 185-pound ranks.
Saturday’s matchup with Stewart is a perfect measuring stick fight for him at this point in his development, as “The Dentist” has proven powerful and is as tenacious as they come, but has landed on the wrong side of the results in similar pairings earlier in his career.
If Lewis can show some improvements and get his first UFC victory, it will be a step in the right direction for the highly touted prospect and a strong building block as he heads into the second half of 2019.
