Who won the Derrick Lewis vs. Francis Ngannou fight?

In what was one of the worst fights in UFC history, Derrick Lewis won against Francis Ngannou at UFC 226. The bout was anticlimatic, and even that might be an understatement. Both fighters possess thunderous KO power, so audiences were expecting a knockout victory on either side.

To the excitement of the fans, the two fighters even had a heated face-off at the ceremonial weigh-ins, with Lewis shoving the Cameroonian fighter. What the audience got, instead, was an incredibly boring fight, with each fighter hesitating to double down and engage.

Skip to 13:00 for the face-off between Lewis and Ngannou:

According to official UFC stats, both fighters threw a combined 100 strikes throughout the course of three rounds. These striking stats would make sense if the bout involved grappling-heavy fighters, but both heavyweights are primarily strikers. Nevertheless, Lewis attempted two takedowns that were stuffed by the heavyweight champion.

'The Black Beast' threw a total of 54 significant strikes, out of which 20 landed. Ngannou threw a total of 46 significant strikes, landing only 11 of those. Both fighters, who have a total of 33 KO/TKO victories between them, seemed too wary of each other's power.

However, Ngannou might have been gun-shy in the fight as he was outclassed in his previous fight by then-champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 220.

Lewis dismissed his own performance in the post-fight press conference:

"It was a terrible performance. I know I said a lot [going into the fight] but it was a really bad performance. And, I know for sure I don't deserve a title-shot. You know, I believe that it hurt me more than it helped me. Even though I got the win, I believe it set me probably about two fights back."

Watch the Lewis-Ngannou fight below:

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Derrick Lewis' stint in prison

Prior to fighting in the UFC, 'The Black Beast' spent about three and a half years in prison. Lewis was fresh out of high school when he was involved in an instance of aggravated assault.

Two years after the incident, while attending Kilgore College on a full scholarship for football, Derrick Lewis violated his parole. It resulted in him being sentenced to five years in prison.

Lewis detailed his prison stint on episode 105 of the JRE MMA Show:

"I ended up violating [my parole] because I didn't have a job... And so, I ended up getting [my parole] violated from that, and it was only a two-year probation at the time. I was in college, you know, didn't have any money. I went to prison for - on a five-year sentence, but I got parole [in] three-and-a-half years."

Derrick Lewis was introduced to MMA just a week after being released from prison. He has since compiled an MMA record of 26-10-1. He also has the most knockout victories in the promotion's history.

Derrick Lewis will face Sergey Spivak in the main event of UFC Fight Night 215 on November 19.