It’s safe to say Justin Gaethje isn’t a fan of most of his fellow lightweights. He reserves particular ire, however, for the lightweight champ Charles Oliveira and former lightweight and current welterweight Kevin Lee. “Kevin Lee’s a b*tch,” he told UFC Unfiltered when asked for his opinion on the rest of the division.
Gaethje’s dismissal of Kevin Lee was actually a side comment to his overall criticism of the lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira, who Gaethje believes hasn’t earned his title. He believed that Oliveira’s win over Lee was “good”, but clarified his stance on “The Motown Phenom” almost immediately.
Gaethje: “Kevin Lee’s a B*tch”
“That was a good one. That was alright. Kevin Lee’s a bitch. Sorry. Sorry, Kevin. No, I think he’s a bitch.
I mean, he’s got skills. That knockout against Gillespie was the worst thing that could’ve happened to him because he doesn’t knock people out.
He needs to win a certain way, and that’s by controlling everything, which is the grappling, and getting it to the fence, and getting it to the ground. I don’t want to knock a guy when he’s down; he just lost. He moved up weight classes.
It doesn’t matter.” Gaethje’s criticism of Kevin Lee’s performance is not unfounded. Although Kevin Lee boasts an 18-7 record, since 2017 Lee has won only two of seven fights.
Lee bounced between welterweight and lightweight since 2019, but has yet to win a fight at 170 pounds. Likewise in the 155-pound lightweight division – which Lee struggled to make weight for repeatedly – he lost to Tony Ferguson, Al Iaquinta and, as Gaethje mentioned, now-champion Charles Oliveira.
A knockout win over Gregor Gillespie and a TKO doctor’s stoppage over Edson Barboza at catchweight notwithstanding, Kevin Lee’s career in the UFC has failed to recapture the momentum he picked up with a five-fight win streak through 2016-17.
As for Justin Gaethje, he’s set to take on Michael Chandler at UFC 268 this November. Gaethje’s most recent outing in the Octagon was a submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was then the undefeated lightweight champion.
Chandler recently lost a title fight against Charles Oliveira, and it’s likely that the winner of this fight will go on to challenge the winner of Oliveira vs Poirier, tentatively scheduled for December.
Is Justin Gaethje right about Kevin Lee, or does Lee have more tricks up his sleeve than “The Highlight” realizes? Let us know in the comments.
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