Lightweight contender Kevin Lee is slated to face Brazilian striker Edson Barboza in the main event of UFC Fight Night 128 this Saturday night (April 21, 2018) inside the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but Lee already has a victory in mind against Edson Barboza, but after the win he wants to lock horns with newly crowned lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“I want that Khabib fight. I’ve been calling for it for a long time,” Lee said in a recent media scrum (Quotes via MMAjunkie). “I feel like I’m going to get a better version of Edson Barboza that fought Khabib a couple months ago. I’m going to whoop this boy even worse then Khabib did, and then from there we can make a fight happen.”
Like many others in the 155-pound division were ready to fight ‘The Eagle,’ likewise, Lee said he was ready to fight Nurmagomedov on short-notice once it was announced that Tony Ferguson was pulled out of the fight. But Khabib went on to beat Al Iaquinta to claim the lightweight title.
Lee made some assessment on Khabib’s recent victory at UFC 223 that his performance had some holes.
“He was trying the same takedown over and over again,” Lee said of Khabib’s UFC 223 performance. “The man don’t have a lot of variety in his game. He’s the same as who beat (Rafael) dos Anjos a few years ago. He’s that exact same fighter. I think once you stop evolving in this game then guys like me are going to catch up to you.”
“Once I get my hands on him that’s really going to show,” he continued. “There was a little bit of frustration watching that fight because I wanted to be the one to expose those holes and I want to be the one to give him that one on his record. But as soon as that fight’s over I got back on what I got to do and that’s to go out there and whooping on Edson.”
In his last outing, Lee came up short against Tony Ferguson at UFC 217 back in October via submission in the third round.
Barboza’s last outing was against Khabib Nurmagomedov, which he lost via unanimous decision.
Now both are going to clash at UFC Atlantic city on April 21st in the main headliner.
