Photo by Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC
After waiting nearly one week to have his injured knee tested for a potential ACL tear, UFC lightweight contender Kevin Lee is fearing the worst.
Lee, 27, hasn’t had the best start to the new year after getting submitted by Charles Oliveira back at UFC Brasilia last month (highlights HERE). It was Lee’s fourth loss in his last six Octagon appearances, as well as his third defeat via submission during that time.
Now, “Motown Phenom” has to deal with a potential ACL tear, which would be his first major knee injury. Lee would have brought himself to the hospital much sooner to have an MRI taken to assess the damage, but with the COVID-19 outbreak consuming medical staff throughout the country the UFC fighter simply had to wait his turn.
“I haven’t gotten it checked out yet. I’ve been through enough injuries where I’m pretty sure it’s my ACL. It’s just a matter of how torn it is and what the severity is,” Kevin Lee told Sirius XM. “I got an appointment at 6:30 [today] all the hospitals are super backed up so I didn’t even bother going to the hospital. They are just sending me straight to the imaging center, get an MRI done on it. I haven’t been able to do much PT, it’s been about five days since it happened. It’s f****d, it’s my first time really going through a knee injury like this.”
While Lee isn’t willing to reveal how he injured his knee at this time, the struggling lightweight contender believes the widespread coronavirus may have had something to do with it. According to “Motown Phenom,” he’s been experiencing prolonged body fatigue over the recent weeks that may have played a factor in his injury.
“Honestly, not even doing anything that was totally out of the ordinary. I mean, I’m not going to stay specifically how it happened because of insurance, you know. But, it wasn’t something totally out of the ordinary,” he said. “I think I may have been affected by this whole virus and shit more than I think. For some reason, I’ve been overly fatigued and my body isn’t feeling great. I zigged when I should have zagged and heard a pop pretty loud. Since then I’m unable to move it much.”
Lee, who has been clawing his way back to contention since losing an interim lightweight title bid to Tony Ferguson back in 2017, planned on taking a long hiatus from UFC after his most recent loss, but it now seems like “Motown Phenom” has no choice. Lee is unaware of the severity of the potential ACL tear at this time, but he doesn’t sound too confident going forward.
Stick with Mania for ongoing updates on Lee’s potentially year-ending injury.