Former interim UFC lightweight title challenger, Kevin Lee managed to return to winning-ways — in rather hasty fashion over the course of the weekend at a Lights Out Championship event in his native Michigan, landing a first round rear-naked choke submission success against Thiago Oliveira.
Lee, a former perennial contender at the lightweight limit and a former interim championship challenger under the banner of the UFC, snapped a retirement of sorts over the weekend in his clash with Oliveira, laying quick waste to the former Bellator MMA fighter with a rear-naked choke win inside just two minutes of the opening round.
Kevin Lee wraps up first round win at Lights Out Championship 17
Sidelined since featuring at UFC Vegas 76 back in July of last year, Kevin Lee suffered a dominant first round guillotine choke loss of his own in a devastating defeat against Rinat Fakhretdinov at the Apex facility.
And booked to return at a Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA event in November in his continued run of activity, Lee gained plaudits for his submission win against Oliveira — notching his ninth stoppage via that method to boot following a prior technical submission win over former lightweight rival, Michael Chiesa in their title-eliminator.
Returning to winning ways with his submission of Oliveira over the weekend, earlier this month Lee expressed his disappointment with how the UFC elected against offering him a potential route back to the promotion through an appearance on the Contender Series.
I’ve heard Dana (White) kind of brag about Belal Muhammad when he wrapped the belt around him and he bragged that he got more views than any other champion — and it was like 20,000,000 views or something,” Kevin Lee explained.
“But my brother, former fighter-turned-famous food vlogger, Keith Lee, did a small video for me getting ready for my last fight in the Apex and — keep this in mind, this is a prelim Apex card fight, and my brother did a post and he got 12,000,000 views compared to a champion that did 20,000,000 views and Dana’s bragging about it, so I don’t think that’s the issue.”