Kevin Lee admits after coming off two knee injuries that Mike Perry looked like low-hanging fruit.
Kevin Lee, 28, is still young but has grown before our eyes in the Octagon. His tenacity and explosiveness have translated well in the lightweight division. In fact, his skills translated so well that he was a touch away from putting Tony Ferguson in serious trouble for the interim lightweight belt back in 2017.
Recently, Lee’s UFC career has been tumultuous, first in 2019, under the tutelage of Firas Zahabi, the renewed Lee knocked the unbeaten Gregor Gillespie out cold. Then, Lee would meet with Brazil’s Charles Oliveira in enemy territory. However, little did the world know that the Brazilian entered the peak of his abilities and went on to capture the vacant lightweight title one year later.
“Yeah, I’ll keep it real. I’m coming off of two knee surgeries after that Oliveira fight, two major ACL surgeries…so it ain’t just like I tore my meniscus or something like that. I had to re-learn how to walk and how to be an athlete again. So coming back, I wanted an easy fight.” Lee said to Helen Yee Sports.
Admittedly, Lee wanted a fight with Perry as he saw him as an easy fight to enter into the 170lbs mix. While Lee concedes that Perry is likely an easier fight, the former title contender is aware that Perry shows up and puts on a show. However, it seems Kevin Lee believes Perry didn’t want the fight and thus, decided to move on.
“Not to say Mike Perry’s an easy fight. He’s gonna show up, and he’s gonna be tough, and he’s gonna stand there and let me punch him a lot. So I thought that would have been fun. But he didn’t want the fight, so I moved on. And this test is a whole lot better and a whole lot tougher, for sure.”
Kevin Lee competed in a welterweight headliner against Rafael dos Anjos in 2019 and lost by arm-triangle choke in the fourth round. Now with Sean Brady in the crosshairs, Kevin Lee is ready to be active and compete at welterweight again.
What do you make of Kevin Lee’s comments about Mike Perry?
