LAS VEGAS – After the biggest win of his career, Serghei Spivac is more than happy to take a little time off.
And it’s not because his win in the UFC Fight Night 218 main event Saturday was that taxing – it didn’t seem to be at all when Spivac (16-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) steamrolled the UFC’s all-time knockout leader, Derrick Lewis (26-11 MMA, 17-9 UFC), with an easy first-round submission.
It’s because Spivac trained for the fight for weeks ahead of its original date this past November, then had to wait to get a new date when Lewis couldn’t fight the day of their UFC Fight Night 215 headliner. Fast forward to now, and Spivac wouldn’t mind a chance to chill, even though he said he’s likely to be right back in the gym, no matter what.
“We were ready for everything,” Spivac said of his win over Lewis. “… Today, I showed you guys my judo style, my sambo style, my boxing style, and in the future, I’ll show you guys more. I trained a lot for this moment. My friend Misha Cirkunov showed me this triangle choke and we worked a lot for this moment. I saw Derrick Lewis doesn’t have good balance and grappling. I took the moment.”
In the cage, Spivac said he’d gladly step up for a fight against former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who fights Ciryl Gane in March for the vacant heavyweight title.
But with some time to reflect, he’ll take anyone who is a step up in competition.
“I don’t choose my opponents and I don’t think about (rankings),” Spivac said. “The UFC needs to think about this. I just wait. Give me a contract, I (sign) it, and that’s it. But we (want) somebody from the top five, yes.”
Could that be Jones, or at least the winner of Jones vs. Gane? Spivac doesn’t want to put the cart too far ahead of the horse, but thinks Jones may have the edge.
“I don’t like to (predict) fights. It’s not for me,” Spivac said. “But I think it will be a great fight. We haven’t seen Jon Jones in a long time – he didn’t fight for three years. But he has big skills, good skills. He was a great champion and he’s still a great champion, in my opinion. Ciryl Gane is very tough, too. We’ll see what happens.”
Check out Spivac’s full post-fight news conference in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 218.
