“He needs a maestro, he needs a f*cking conductor. He needs a Greg Jackson or a Matt Hume, Firas Zahabi, Duke Roufus.”
Kevin Lee hasn’t had the best of luck in the Octagon as of late, as ‘The Motown Phenom’ has dropped two straight fights, losing to Al Iaquinta at UFC on FOX 31 and succumbing to an arm-triangle choke in his welterweight debut against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC Rochester last weekend.
With that said, at just 26-years-old Lee has plenty of time to improve as a fighter before he reaches his athletic prime and longtime UFC commentator and podcast host Joe Rogan believes the former lightweight title challenger is ‘100 percent’ capable of becoming champion — he just needs to find the right coach.
On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan advised Lee to consider reaching out to renowned coach Firas Zahabi, who trains the likes of Georges St-Pierre and current Bellator 170-pound champ Rory MacDonald.
“Kevin Lee needs a camp. I think Kevin Lee should go to Firas Zahabi,” Rogan said, per The Low Kick MMA’s Jon Fuentes. “The reason why Firas Zahabi is, Kevin Lee’s skill set is very similar to Georges St-Pierre’s. Good striking, very athletic, great timing of takedowns, no one knows how to coach that better than Firas Zahabi. That’s what I think.
“It’s no disrespect to any small camps. An athlete has a small f*cking window, man. Kevin is 26, right? So he’s got 10 years. Not good. Before that, he was beating guys in pretty spectacular fashion. Robert Follis’ death had a tremendous impact on him as a fighter, as a person, and then he fought some really great fighters on top of that.”
Rogan also suggested Lee reach out to the likes of Greg Jackson, Matt Hume and Duke Roufus, while hailing the NCAA Division II wrestler as a future UFC champion.
“He 100 percent can be champion. He’s just gotta make some changes – he needs a maestro, he needs a f*cking conductor. He needs a Greg Jackson or a Matt Hume, Firas Zahabi, Duke Roufus,” Rogan said.
Following his loss to dos Anjos at UFC Fight Night 152, Lee slipped from #7 to #9 in the official lightweight rankings. The Las Vegas-based fighter is currently unranked at 170 pounds.