May 17, 2011 – As you may have read in our in-depth article detailing his story, Houston’s Derrick “Black Beast” Lewis will be fighting on the main draw at this weekend’s Bellator 45, set to air LIVE on MTV2 from the L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, LA.
The Texas native goes into this bout as the betting underdog versus his opponent Thiago “Big Monster” Santos, a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil who comes into this Bellator HWT tournament qualifying bout with an 8-1 record and a penchant for viciously KO’ing his opponents.
“The footage I’ve seen of Thiago looks dominant,” mentioned Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “Fans in Lake Charles, and those watching on MTV2 should be in for a show with Big Monster.”
With a background in bare-knuckle vale tudo fights, Santos will be a tough task for the “Black Beast” to handle but one the Silverback Fight Club heavyweight welcomes.
“I just want to keep my level and take it even higher and higher with each fight. I don’t want to have to keep coming back down like some of these other fighters. My goal is for every fight soon to be with somebody like Bellator,” says Lewis, who adds that he will win by second-round knockout over his highly-touted opponent in a message to our readers.
As for the “Big Monster,” well he too had a message of his own for Houston’s Bellator representative this weekend.
“The message I want to send in this fight with Derrick Lewis is that I want to be the Bellator Heavyweight World Champion,” said Santos. “I respect everyone I fight, but I want the title. My intention is to finish Derrick by knockout or submission to let everyone know that I’m coming for the belt.”
So there you have it. Derrick Lewis was able to shock a highly-touted opponent once before at Fight to Win: Worlds Collide when he took out highly-touted Ryan Martinez in his home state of Colorado. Will he be able to slay another Monster yet again this coming Saturday and earn a chance at $100,000 Bellator’s heavyweight tournament?
Tune in to MTV2 to find out!
Bellator 45 – Televised Fight Card
- Featherweight Tournament Finals
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (16-1) vs Daniel Strauss (16-3) - Light Heavyweight Tournament Finals
Richard Hale (17-3-1) vs. Christian M’Pumbu (17-3-1). - Middleweight Bout
Karl Amoussou (11-3-2) vs. Sam Alvey (14-2) - Heavyweight Bout
Thiago Santos (8-1) and Derek Lewis (4-1)