Kevin Lee Reflects On Khabib Nurmagomedov’s Recent Performance
Kevin Lee has been critical of UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov for several years now. However all that seems to have changed, after Khabib’s last fight.
Lee has gone back and forth with Khabib for a while now, even picking Tony Ferguson to beat him. However, when Lee made the move to welterweight, he began to realize how good Khabib really is. In an interview with MMAJunkie, Lee explained that Khabib’s UFC 242 win over Dustin Poirier changed his mind about the champ.
“I got to be honest: If you asked me before the Poirier fight, I would have been like Tony is still like a 90 percent chance of winning. After seeing what Khabib did to Poirier, I think it’s going to be very hard for Tony to beat him.”
Furthermore, Kevin Lee says that after the Ferguson fight, there is not a whole lot left for Khabib. As a result, there could be a chance for him to move back down to lightweight, provided he is able to get some wins, and fight for the title.
“After the Tony fight, there’s not many more competitors that people want to see fight him. That’s one of the big motivations for me to go down 155. I think that a lot of people want to see me get in there with Khabib, and I want to see it too.”
Lee also says that his perspective on Khabib changed drastically after UFC 242, and it inspired him to train harder.
“I’m not going to lie: It was very, very impressive, and the people know I don’t get impressed very easily, especially with a guy like Khabib, but that one is very impressive. One of those fights that got me up even, it made me step my game up. Literally, as soon as that fight was over, I got in my car and started driving to Montreal. I know what type of work I got to put in now.”
Kevin Lee has had a bit of a tough run in his career lately, dropping three of his last four. However, he is looking to turn that around by training with the likes of Georges St. Pierre in Montreal. If he is able to string together some victories, perhaps a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov could be around the corner.
