A rumored fight between Derrick Lewis and Paulo Costa has been debunked. What appeared to be an announcement regarding Lewis being pulled from a fight and a potential matchup with Costa turned out to be something entirely different. Josh Hawkit was actually announcing a partnership with an American sports betting exchange. The collaboration will involve behind-the-scenes content featuring Hawkit throughout fight week. The post clarifies that there is no actual fight announcement and the speculation was based on a misunderstanding of the partnership announcement.
What initially spread online as a potential heavyweight-meets-middleweight crossover matchup between Derrick Lewis and Paulo Costa has turned out to be nothing more than a sponsorship announcement gone viral. The source of the confusion, Josh Hawkit, was not revealing a fight booking at all — he was announcing a new partnership with an American sports betting exchange. Behind-the-scenes content featuring Hawkit throughout fight week is part of the collaboration, and Hawkit has since clarified that no fight announcement was made and that the speculation stemmed from a straightforward misreading of the post.
Derrick Lewis, 41, competes at heavyweight and sits at number eight in that division with a professional record of 29-14. The American, who trains out of Main Street Boxing and Muay Thai, stands six-foot-three with a 79-inch reach and has built his reputation as one of the sport's most dangerous knockout artists, landing 2.46 significant strikes per minute over his career.
Paulo Costa, nicknamed The Eraser, is a 35-year-old Brazilian middleweight ranked thirteenth in his division. Fighting out of Team Borracha, Costa holds a 16-4 record and brings exceptional striking output to the cage, averaging 6.26 significant strikes per minute at a 58 percent accuracy rate — numbers that place him among the most prolific pressure strivers in the 185-pound class.
Why it matters
- The rapid spread of the rumor reflects how easily promotional or sponsorship content can be misread as a fight announcement in the current social media environment.
- Lewis and Costa compete in entirely separate weight classes, making a sanctioned matchup between the two essentially impossible under standard UFC rules.
- Neither fighter's ranking picture is directly affected, though both remain active and relevant in their respective divisions.
