Unsure If Retirement Is Permanent
Lee’s willingness to speak his mind apparently didn’t always sit well with the UFC.
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This guy has some mental health issues.
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Kevin Lee hasn’t completely shut the door on potentially fighting again in the future, but it’s worth wondering if he’d want to return to the UFC considering the 30-year-old claims the promotion tried to censor him.
“Motown Phenom” was at one point one of the UFC’s top lightweight contenders, but after back-to-back losses against Charles Oliveira and Daniel Rodriguez he exited the promotion in 2021. One win over Diego Sanchez in Eagle FC led to him getting a call back to the UFC earlier this month, but after being submitted by Rinat Fakhretdinov in under a minute, Lee decided it was time to hang up his gloves.
Fans of the sport are well aware that fighter retirements don’t often last, and during a Submission Radio appearance Lee couldn’t bring himself to fully count out the chances of him stepping into the cage again at some point.
“It’s 100 percent,” Lee answered at first. “I had to put it outside of my mind. I don’t wanna leave a 95 [percent] and, ‘Maybe in ten years I’ll come back, or maybe in three years or maybe in two years.’ For right now, it’s gonna be about getting the surgery. Healing myself, and then making a lot of money outside the sport…I feel there’s a lot I can accomplish outside of the sport that me constantly thinking about fighting is kind of blocking my vision a little bit…Who knows, maybe if – (laughs). I can’t help it…I’m always gonna be a fan of the sport…I’m still gonna train, so I don’t know. I do know, but I don’t know.”
Kevin Lee Details How The UFC Tried To Censor Him
The discussion around whether or not Lee was fully retired led into a question about the 30-year-old’s relationship with UFC President Dana White, and “Motown Phenom” admitted that the promotion wasn’t always thrilled by how open he was during interviews.
“Me and Dana have a very hot and cold type of relationship…They get p***ed at me for saying certain things. With me, I’m gonna try and give you the clearest, honest answer that I can. Especially if somebody asks me a question or if I’m doing media or whatever. And honestly, they don’t like that too much. I think they don’t necessarily want you to say certain things. I’ve been kinda told on the hush hush about certain things.”
Lee is certainly young enough to attempt a comeback at some point, however the last few years have been particularly difficult after his initial rise to contention in the UFC’s lightweight division and attempt to revitalize his career as a welterweight.
The 30-year-old’s best stretch of success came when he put together a five-fight win streak that set up a matchup with Tony Ferguson for the promotion’s interim lightweight title in 2017, but after being submitted in that bout he’s gone 3-5 overall with three of those losses also coming via submission.
Is it considered censorship to tell somebody to “shut the fuck up”? I may have censored Kevin Lee too.
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Starting the story by pointing out that this story is completely factual (which Curtis already states means ‘don’t believe him’) Strickland details an encounter he had with the younger Lee where he was forced to engage in a conversation about race.
“So he comes up to me and starts accusing me of being fing racist and I’m like what are we fing doing here dude like if I was racist, I’m the most honest motherfer there" Strickland continued. "If I wanted to f dudes, if I hated black people, I’ll be the first one to fing tell you guys so anyways what I tell people… anytime you’re talking to somebody racist, and I know this because I used to be a little racist, anytime you’re talking to somebody racist and you want to p them off, you’ve just got to talk about f***ing the sex, the race of whatever they are.”
I’m as confused as kevin lee with this post…
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Kevin Lee’s brother never made it very far in Bellator but I heard he is a huge celebrity food critic on social media now and killing it.
Its funny back when Conor was first blowing up it was Lee who was talking about becoming this big money fighter and his little brother started killing it while Kevin’s MMA career tanked.
Get ready for the Kevin Lee food review collaborations with Food Review Bruh on youtube.
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Kevin Lee might end up going the Johnny Hendrix route and just saying fuck it and opening a Steakhouse or Taco bar.
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This dude is a drama queen.
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This might be the most pointless article in the history of articles
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