In Oct. 2017, a 25-year-old named Kevin Lee challenged for the UFC interim lightweight title. He lost that night, submitting in the third round to Tony Ferguson, one of the best lightweights of all time near the peak of his powers. But just being there put Lee in rare company. Only a select few have reached that level that young – Jon Jones, Anthony Pettis and Frank Mir are among the very, very small number of mixed martial artists who have challenged for UFC gold in their early 20s.
Maybe Lee didn’t have UFC gold in his future, not with fighters like Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier stalking the lightweight division. But you could have damn well bet that Kevin Lee was going to be a factor for a very long time.
He wasn’t ready that night in 2017, but Kevin Lee would be back. But turns out, somehow, we were wrong.
When Lee challenged for the interim lightweight title in 2017, he was 16-2, riding a five-fight win streak that included four consecutive submissions, including stoppages of acclaimed talents like Michael Chiesa, Magomed Mustafaev and Francisco Trinaldo. Since then, he’s lost five of seven, facing significant personal challenges and health issues that have dropped him from relevance and led to his UFC release.
First, Lee began to struggle with the weight cut, missing 155 twice for fights with Edson Barboza and current champ Charles Oliveira. He tore his ACL, then tore the other ACL while recovering from the first surgery. He broke his rib, forcing his most recent fight to be postponed. And he failed a drug test, under somewhat spurious circumstances – he tested positive for Adderall, a banned substance, and even though he’s legitimately prescribed the drug for ADHD, he neglected to apply for an exemption and was suspended six months.
And all along, he never really patched over the significant holes in his game. Lee is a terrific top-control grappler with still relatively basic stand-up and a gas tank that has forever been an Achilles heel – he historically starts strong and either has to finish his opponent early or hope he did enough to hang on. With the issues making 155, that was magnified. Lee went 0-2 in two appearances at welterweight, losing to Rafael dos Anjos in 2019 and dropping a decision in his most recent UFC fight against Daniel Rodriguez.
The latter fight followed a typical Lee script. Lee started hot with his grappling, but against a larger opponent had much more trouble holding Rodriguez down as the fight progressed and he tired, leading Lee to get boxed up over the last two rounds and lose the fight. In the years since his shot at gold, Lee never really evolved, and we saw that his style isn’t really set to work for him at 170 – an issue, considering he has so much trouble making 155.
All those factors combined? That’s how you go from a can’t-miss star, challenging for a UFC belt at 25 years old, to out of the world’s biggest MMA organization while still in your 20s. Lee has a lot to figure out. But the good news is that he still has time to do so. Lee’s just 29 years old, and has demonstrated fantastic talent when he’s been right. Remember the head kick KO of Gregor Gillespie, the performance that convinced everyone that Lee was back and here to stay? That was only a couple fights ago.
Lee’s loss will, hopefully, be Bellator’s gain. If Lee can figure out his weight cut issues – tough cut or not, his best chance for continued relevance is to stick it out at 155 – he can step right into Bellator’s lightweight division as a top contender. That weight class is in a weird spot, with Patricky Pitbull reigning as champion only by grace of his brother Patricio relinquishing the belt and basically setting it up for him. The rest of the division looks very beatable as well. Before too long, we could see Kevin Lee wearing gold, a sight we once thought we might see under very different circumstances.
It wasn’t the plan originally, to be sure. But after everything Kevin Lee’s been through over the last four years – and it’s been one of the strangest rides I can remember – he needs some kind of hope. Hope remains for Kevin Lee, even though right now, you have to squint a little bit to see it.
The Big Fight 