The UFC Fight Night card in Edmonton will have much less firepower than expected as the promotion announced the cancellation of the main fight of Derrick Lewis vs. Jhonata Diniz on Friday. According to the UFC, Lewis had a medical issue unrelated to the weight cut, and that is why the heavyweight fight was canceled less than 24 hours before the event at Rogers Place.

Lewis, a former title challenger, and heavyweight ranked 11th, had hoped to win his second straight fight, this time ending what has been a promising early UFC career for Diniz. Lewis was originally scheduled to face Alexandr Romanov, but the promotion switched him to Diniz for what was likely to be a surprising battle. The Brazilian prospect is currently undefeated (8-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC), but Lewis would be the biggest name on his resume if he had finished victorious on Saturday.

Instead, he’ll have to wait for some other time to get that chance and watch the Edmonton card with the rest of the UFC fanbase. Meanwhile, as the Lewis-Diniz fight is no longer on the main card, Canada’s Jasmine Jasudavicius is pushed out of the preliminaries. She will face Ariane Da Silva, a women’s flyweight ranked 13th, and could move up one spot in the rankings with a win.

However, it might’ve been a blessing in disguise for ‘The Black Beast’, since the UFC Heavyweight was not the favorite to win in what would have been his thirtieth appearance in the octagon. According to the odds, Derrick Lewis would have arrived on the main card of this Saturday’s UFC Edmonton as the underdog by +142. This surely means that the fight was a really tough one for him and that he might’ve actually lost this one.

Derrick Lewis, who holds the record for the most knockouts in UFC history, is coming off a TKO finish over Rodrigo Nascimento in the main event of UFC Louisville on May 11. ‘The Black Beast’ has a 2-1 record in its last three games. Whereas Diniz, who will have the opportunity to access the UFC’s top 15 in his third fight for the promotion, arrives with victories against Karl Williams and Austen Lane.

The Curitiba-born fighter has achieved six of his victories in the first round. Well, it seems like Lewis wouldn’t be too sad over his fight getting canceled against Diniz. Surely it seems like things are going his way, as he also recently revealed how he got the UFC contract that he wanted all thanks to a little help from another UFC heavyweight.

How Francis Ngannou helped Derrick Lewis get a lucrative UFC contract

Lewis re-signed with the UFC after his historic knockout victory over Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC 291 in July 2023. However, in this re-signing, a major part was played by Francis Ngannou. Lewis’ former opponent from UFC 226 was on the verge of signing with the PFL, and ‘The Black Beast’ surely saw it as an opportunity to use it in his negotiations.

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Lewis said, “Francis played the role of helping me get this contract that I got now. Because, you know, in the negotiations I said, ‘Man, look what they’re doing there; I might be there understanding that.’ It’s so strange. I’d like to stay here. So, you know, I’m not going to say too much.”

And now that he had the contract the way he wanted, Lewis was geared up to fight. However, this ‘weight’ has surely put a pause on it for a while now. It would be interesting to see what Lewis gets as his opponent now. Will he be set up to finish what he started against Jhonata Diniz, or will he finally get to face earlier-slated Alexandr Romanov? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.