For Kevin Lee, the stakes are high in a possible rematch against Tony Ferguson.
UFC lightweight Kevin Lee has been out of action since March 2020. In that last time he set foot inside the UFC cage, “The Motown Phenom” ended up tapping out to Charles Oliveira’s guillotine choke.
As he plans his return after more than a year on the sidelines, Lee wants a familiar opponent.
“That’s what they do in boxing – you ease your way back in,” Lee told MMA Junkie. “But the way I’m feeling, I don’t think it’s necessary. I’m going to fight Tony Ferguson. I think that fight makes sense from all angles. I don’t see anybody else that’s out there for him to fight.
“It just makes sense and it puts us back where it should be. A fight with me and him is going to kind of show one of us has to win, one of us is going to have to leave. So that’s a fight that interests me this summer. We’ll see what he talking about on his end, but he’s No. 1 in my book.”
“El Cucuy” is currently on a two-fight losing streak. That led observers like Michael Bisping to think that the former interim 155-pound champ is on a “rapid decline.” Lee recognizes Ferguson’s age but isn’t fully counting out his former opponent yet.
“I think he’s going to dig deep for the next one, for sure,” Lee said of Ferguson. “That’s why I want to get him next. I think he’s probably got one more good run in him, one more good push in him, so I want to be the one to gets him at his best again and shut that down.
“He’s like 36, 37 years old, but then you see a Lebron James who’s out there still ballin’ – 36 is different these days. It’s not the same. So I think he might have one good push in him left.
“That’s why that fight interests me. If I really thought he was just on the down and he was just never going to come back, then I would overlook him. But I think he’s got one more in him. I’d be that one, for sure.”
Like Lee, Ferguson is also coming off a loss to Oliveira. The two fought at UFC 256 in December with “Do Bronx” winning via a dominant unanimous decision.