You can’t really blame Kevin Lee for reaching for the stars, but “Motown Phenom” may be in over his head this time around.
In a recent interview with The Straits Times, Lee proposed a 165-pound title fight with former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre this November in New York City. Even though Lee has never fought over 160 pounds and GSP has never fought below 170 pounds, the brash youngster still believes it’s the fight to make in order to gain some clarity among the various divisions.
“The 155lb and 170lb (divisions) are so messed up right now,” Lee explained. “You’ve got three titles between the two divisions already, so they’ve got to add another weight class.
”I think me and Georges for the 165lb title makes the most amount of sense. You do Conor [McGregor] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] in October, you do me and Georges in November, at Madison Square Garden.
”And maybe you do Tyron [Woodley] and Colby [Covington] to figure out the 170lb division.”
This isn’t the first time Lee has explained the need for a new 165-pound division, but it is the first instance in which he has called out St-Pierre. Considering GSP has already been linked to a lightweight clash with Nate Diaz, a drop down from weight wouldn’t be entirely out of the question.
But is Lee is the one to draw St-Pierre out of another lengthy hiatus and drag him south of the welterweight/middleweight border in the process?
Probably not. Lee is super talented and can work the microphone better than most, but he’s not the type of fighter St-Pierre is looking to fight at the moment. The Canadian superstar only wants superfights. It’s that simple.
“Georges is one of the ones that really got me into the sport, I’ve kinda even modelled my career after him a little bit,” said Lee.
”We started in the same first promotion, we had the same first manager, we have the same management (Creative Artists Agency) now.
”There are so many parallels to us now, that I think that adds even more intrigue to the fight
”It will be the hardest fight of my career, it’ll be the biggest challenge But, as soon as I get back home from UFC Singapore, I’m going to go back and figure out how to beat the man.”
Lee, 25, is coming off an impressive TKO win over Edson Barboza this past April. He has only lost to Tony Ferguson since 2016 and remains one of the best fighters at 155 pounds. His wrestling and striking could potentially cause problems for GSP, but “Motown Phenom” is unlikely to ever get his chance to prove it.
If Lee is looking for some action outside of the stacked lightweight division then maybe he should finally make the jump up to 170 pounds, especially after missing weight for his last bout with Barboza.