The UFC is formally out of the Kevin Lee enterprise.
As soon as upon a time, the ‘Motown Phenom’ was some of the intriguing prospects within the UFC’s loaded light-weight division. Nonetheless, an interim title loss towards Tony Ferguson at UFC 216 put him on target for a lackluster 2-5 run that finally led to his outright launch in November 2021.
After bagging a win over Diego Sanchez underneath the Eagle FC banner, Lee was given one other shot by Dana White and Co, making his return to the promotion in July 2023 for a scrap with Rinat Fakhretdinov. 55 seconds into the scrap, Fakhretdinov caught Lee with a guillotine choke.
Lee retired from MMA shortly after, however throughout a latest look on The Ariel Helwani Present, revealed that he had been desperately making an attempt to re-sign with the UFC, even providing to compete on Dana White’s Contender Sequence for a paltry 5k payout.
Sadly, the UFC wasn’t .
“I actually need to compete. For me, cash isn’t essentially the largest difficulty; I stated I’d take that combat for $5k on Contender Sequence towards one of the best Contender they received,” Lee instructed Helwani. “They weren’t excited by that. Why? I don’t know. I didn’t have a lot dialog with the UFC apart from Sean Shelby, and he stated he wasn’t actually excited by one thing like that. Once I speak with Ali [Abdelaziz], and he tells me something in regards to the UFC, he says they’re not in any respect.
“Why that’s? I couldn’t inform you. I’ve been in a few of the greatest fights in UFC historical past. I completed off their Fox deal going into the ESPN deal, and I’m a fairly simple man to work with,” Lee concluded. “I really feel like I’m skilled, I do what I have to do, and I don’t rub too many individuals the incorrect approach. Why they didn’t need me to go on Contender Sequence to show I’m nonetheless among the finest 155ers on the market, I don’t know, however I’ll ensure that this subsequent time, there isn’t any doubt.”
Kevin Lee finds new MMA life within the GFL Following the UFC’s newest rejection
Fortunately for Lee, there are different choices on the market. In December, it was introduced that the Michigan native had signed with the World Combat League, a promotion that has been gobbling up expertise in preparation for its inaugural occasion rumored to go down in April.
No bulletins have been made concerning Lee, or anybody else’s first look with the promotion, but when Lee will get his want, he’ll get to precise some revenge on the fighter that crushed his momentum eight years in the past.
