Derrick Lewis is one of the most terrifyingly powerful men in the UFC, which is why he earned the nickname, “The Black Beast.”
Lewis, however, is not in fighting mode at the moment. Instead, he has become a life saver as his home city of Houston is drowned und🐻er 💮the flood waters created by Hurricane Harvey.
Responding to Facebook me🅘ssages and phones calls from friends, Lewis has been braving the rising waters in his gigantic Chevy truck and has been willing to help anyone in need, even one desperate man who would not leave without his Confederate flag.
“I don’t care about that,” Lewis . “I live in Texas. It ain’t nothing new. I’ve been living in the South all my life, and it ain’t nothing I hadn’t seen before or discussed about.♒ I don’t care about that type of stuff. I just wanted to help him.”
The man in question was in deep trouble 🍸on Sunday night as the waters around him kept rising.
“I picked up one guy and his family, hi🤪s wife – he just kept apologizing to me, because all he really had was his clothes, and he wanted to take his C𒊎onfederate flag.”
“He wanted to take that with him, and he just apologized and said, ‘Man, I’ll sit in the back of your truck, man. I don’t want to have my flag inside of your truck like this.’ I said, ‘Man, I’m not worried about that,’” Lewis said.
“He’s saying, ‘You never know if you ever need someone, so …’ – I already knew where he was going with it. I just said, ‘Don’t even worry about it. It’s OK. I don’t care about that.’ His wife kept hitting him and saying, ‘You should have just left it.’”
Lewis (18-5-0) is currently the No. 6-ranked heavyweight in the UFC, has won six out of his last seven fights𓄧 and is scheduled ꦏto fight third-ranked Fabricio Werdum at UFC 2016 in October.
The fight is currently not a 🌼top pr👍iority on his to-do list.
“I’m just worried about making sure my kids and my family is OK and everyone el⛄se around me. The fight is going to come,” Lewis said.
“I’ve always been that type of guy that I like to help people more than I like to help myself. And so I just seized the opportunity.”
And in terms of payment for his services, Lewis joked that he didn’t want money, but wouldn’t turn down fried chicken.
“Just send me some Popeye’s. … Give me that 12 piece.”