Following his loss to Al Iaquinta at UFC Milwaukee, Kevin Lee did not shy away from the cameras and told reporters in a post-fight scrum that he felt “devastated” and “embarrassed.” Monday, after a full day to sit with his emotions and lick his wounds, Kevin Lee provided fans an update on where he is at:
“It’s still kind of stinging a little bit, but I’m all right,” Lee said on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.” “It is what it is at this point. I felt like I still could have got that judges’ nod, but I still learned some things from it. I eased off a little bit too much at the end there, and I just didn’t stick to my natural fighting style. I didn’t bring out the aggressive and the (explosiveness). It’s kind of hard for it to settle in, but I’ll be all right.”
This is the second loss Kevin Lee has on his record to Al Iaquinta. And in Lee’s Monday morning quarterbacking, he believes that the mental aspect of the fight played a factor in the outcome:
“I think I went out there with a little something to prove, and that’s a terrible way to fight,” Lee said. “The first round, I thought went my way, but I fought a completely different style than I’m used to fighting. I fought on my back foot as a southpaw, when normally I’m the guy stalking. I’m the guy going forward. I’m the guy putting down the power. And then once I got him to the ground, I felt pretty in control there. I could have took it more back to it at the end, and I just felt like I had something to prove, and it’s a terrible way to fight, I guess.
“He was kind of the same Al, it’s just…if I would have shown up as the same Kevin Lee, then I feel like it would have been a different fight. I feel like I made too many changes and tried to go too far forward too quick. I should have stuck to what comes natural to me and my natural fighting style, and I feel like that would have really got the job done a little bit better. But even then, I still felt like I won.”
Kevin Lee believes that it all came down to the 1st round, a round that he doesn’t understand Iaquinta being declared the winner:
“I didn’t see how they gave him the first round, and I damn sure don’t see how they gave him two or three.”
“He was coming forward, but he was coming forward and getting hit. So I don’t know what they saw.”
Do you believe Kevin Lee has a valid argument? Could the fight have potentially been scored for him?
