Former UFC lightweight contender Kevin Lee has been released by the UFC.
MMA Fighting confirmed the news with UFC officials, marking an end to Lee’s eight years with the promotion where he went 11-7 with the promotion, earning three performance bonuses.
Lee started off strong in the UFC, going 9-2 over his first three years in the UFC. But a 2017 loss to Tony Ferguson in a fight for the UFC interim belt along with the suicide of his coach Robert Follis marked a downturn in “The Motown Phenom’s” career. Lee struggled to make lightweight but wasn’t able to deal with the size of welterweights. Impressive wins over Edson Barboza and Gregor Gillespie were interspersed with losses to Al Iaquinta, Rafael Dos Anjos, Charles Oliveira, and most recently Daniel Rodriguez.
No shame in losing to any of those killers, but too many Ls stacked together never bodes well for UFC fighters.
Kevin Lee fight week
Never forget he knocked out Gillespie right under the ad that said hospital pic.twitter.com/SJUYmLTK9N
— Connoisseur of Combat (@ConOfCombat) March 10, 2020
In between the Oliveira and Rodriguez fights, Lee also had the misfortune of blowing out the ACLs in both of his knees, taking him out of action for a year and a half. Following the Rodriguez fight, he failed a USADA test for amphetamine and was suspended for six months (Lee claims it was Adderall). That may have been the tipping point for the UFC releasing him.
We imagine his relatively high paycheck (high compared to all the Contender series guys) may have played a factor as well. Lee’s last disclosed paycheck was $84k to show, $84k to win.
Here’s hoping Lee finds free agency treating him well. There’s Bellator, ONE, PFL, or even something like RIZIN or Eagles FC. Let’s not forget Triller is out there paying former UFC fighters mid-six figures for fights too. At just 29 years of age, there’s still hope that Kevin Lee could mature into the champion many thought he’d become during his early UFC days,