Kevin Lee will make his return to the welterweight division against Daniel Rodriguez as part of the upcoming UFC Vegas 35 main card, going down on both ESPN and ESPN+ this Sat. night (Aug. 28, 2021) inside APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
While the 28 year-old Lee is not ranked in the Top 10 at lightweight, where he spent most of his combat sports career, “The Motown Phenom” believes his current skill set already ranks him among the five best fighters at 170 pounds.
“I feel like I’m already top five, so this is going to be one of those fights to show the difference in what I’ve got,” Lee told The MMA Hour (transcribed by Middle Easy). “I’ve been watching the whole time and I see nobody around here. I see nobody that can bring what I bring to the table. I see nobody that’s got the skills that I’ve got, and can do everything in a complete package. I don’t see none of them, so yeah, it’s me.”
Lee (18-6), who is coming off a submission loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 170 back in March 2014, is just 2-4 over the last couple of years and was submitted by longtime veteran Rafael dos Anjos in his last trip to welterweight.
“(Usman) is a great champ, I’ll give it to him. But I don’t think he’s really been challenged by anybody, and I’m here to give him that challenge,” Lee continued. “Leon (Edwards) is not really up there. Colby (Covington’s) going to put up a good fight. Leon will make a good fight, but he don’t bring the complete package. He might bring some decent fighting skills, but it takes more than that in this game, I feel like… There’s some big names, yeah some decent names. But they don’t do shit.”
To see who else is fighting at UFC Vegas 35 click here.