Kevin Lee knows where he’s going, and it’s not a course the Detroit native cares to travel at a slow speed.

The 24-year-old lightweight has been under contract with the UFC for just north of two and a half years, already notching eight fights inside the Octagon. Lee found success in all but two of those showings, and anyone who has seen the talented upstart’s tenacity will understand it isn’t his achievements that push him further.

A product of the hard-knock hustle growing up that comes from growing up in Michigan’s industrial mecca, Lee understands adversity is where the most education is found. And while he’s notched back-to-back victories since his loss to Leandro Santos at UFC 194 last December, that night in Las Vegas kicked his drive into another gear.

“It took me a good month to get over it, to really sit back and re-watch it and realize what I was doing,” Lee said. “I was overconfident. I didn’t think the kid could hurt me on the feet at all. I knew Leonardo Santos is one of the best jiu-jitsu guys in the world, so I knew as long as I stayed away from the ground, he was going to fall. I didn’t think he had anything for me on the feet.

“I was talking to Big John (McCarthy) after the fight, because, you know, I still think that fight was stopped early. Big John said the same thing, he said once I got up from the ground, he thought I was going to run away with it. I think everybody in the world thought that. Everybody kind of knew once I got him off my back that first time, we were just waiting on him to fall. Everyone knew except for him and the two dudes he had with him. I just got caught with a hard punch, man. It happens.”

Lee rebounded in his next two fights, scoring a unanimous decision win over Efrain Escudero and a first-round TKO of Australian prospect Jake Matthews. Those two wins turned Lee’s aim back toward the biggest targets in his tier of the stacked lightweight division, with one man in particular, Sage Northcutt, getting the lion’s share of Lee’s attention.

Yet, despite Lee’s desires, a rumored matchup between “Super Sage” and Mickey Gall may put Lee’s wishes on hold for the time being.

“I think that’s one of the fights you look at, and once I blow him (Northcutt) out of the water, I steal all his shine,” Lee said. “To me, I was really frustrated the other day, because I keep hearing about them promoting this Sage vs. Gall fight. And actual reporters, like Ariel (Helwani), are trying to promote this fight. This would be the lowest-level fight in the UFC. I don’t get where all the praise for these guys comes from.

“Gall is 24 with two fights against two guys that have never fought before. He’s really a debut fighter to me. He doesn’t have any fights. I have 35 fights if you count my amateur record. I just don’t get how they give certain guys a push, then other guys they leave in the dark. It’s frustrating.”

While Lee doesn’t knock anyone for earning their way up the ladder in the fight game, he doesn’t believe that is anywhere near the case for what is happening with Northcutt and Gall. The young Texan received a tremendous amount of push and hype from the UFC since being discovered by Dana White, and Gall took his own piece of the spotlight by defeating a former professional wrestler with zero MMA experience in CM Punk.

“The UFC picks and chooses who they want to promote, and you can sell any fight,” Lee said. “If they choose to make this Gall and Northcutt fight, they’ll sell it, just because the UFC is a great promoter. Why they choose to promote certain guys over others, I don’t know. And it isn’t just me. When I go to the gym and I talk to all these other guys, we all feel the same way.

“There are guys who are way more deserving who just don’t get the push. I think the one big market the UFC is missing is the black community in America. Why not promote more black people? I don’t know. They try to stick me on Fight Pass and what not and get those others guys to main event some cards. I don’t know.”

Lee doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about and believes he’d deal with either man in devastating fashion. Nevertheless, those are not opportunities he sees coming to fruition anytime soon, and that is enough to piss him off. And the case would be exacerbated if he were placed as one of the lower fights on a card that featured Northcutt vs. Gall later this year.

“It’d be a slap in the face, man, especially if they try to put me on the undercard of that event,” Lee said. “I’ll tell you this: If they put me on the undercard of Gall and Northcutt, I won’t show up to the fight. It’d just be too big a slap in the face to me. I’ve put in the work. I’ve put in the time and the effort. Otherwise, this is all for nothing.

“I could’ve, when I was 19, just bulked up a bunch. I could’ve gotten real big and swole looking. It would’ve been pretty easy, you know? Then I could’ve worked on my mic skills more. I’ve been putting in all this work for years. To give it away to somebody else who hasn’t, that’s a slap in the face.”

Failing a matchup against Northcutt or Gall to boost his stock, Lee gave the UFC another option.

“I’ll fight both of them at once,” he said. “If the UFC really wants to make money, we can do a handicap match.”

While it may sound as if Lee is speaking tongue-in-cheek about fighting both men at the same time, his comments go a long way to show where he believes he stands over Northcutt and Gall. Lee doesn’t believe either man belongs in the same cage as him, and he took the time to explain exactly why he sees things this way, starting with Northcutt.

“If I chose to put him on the ground, he wouldn’t know what to do,” Lee said. “Even on the feet, the kid, he’s very awkward, he moves weird, but he’s very basic. He gets hit a lot. He’s stationary even though he moves up and down a lot. He doesn’t move his head. He wouldn’t last a round.

“I don’t really like the kid, I don’t know. It’s something about that happy-go-lucky, giddy personality. I think he’s full of sh*t. There’s something about the ‘yes, ma’am,’ ‘no sir’ stuff that I don’t really like. That, and I think he’s just full of sh*t. I think he’s been on all types of drugs since he was a kid. He’ll never admit it, so that bothers me.”

Lee then drew a comparison to hammer the point home.

“He’s like the boss’ son,” Lee added. “When the boss’ son is a really nice kid but you just don’t like him. That’s Sage.”



Lee’s desire to face Northcutt caused some unexpected blowback, as people called the Detroit native out for asking to face a lower-ranked, less-experienced fighter. Lee explained his thought process here.

“A lot of people wonder why, if you’re higher ranked, why do you call out someone lower ranked?” Lee said. “But they pay the kid more, they promote him more, they give him higher spots on the card, so I don’t think rankings mean sh*t to be honest. I’d rather fight him than one of these tough guys nobody really knows.”  

Although Lee sees how the promotional game works and how the squeaky wheel gets the grease, he isn’t quite ready to pull a full-on Conor McGregor verbal assault to push himself. Lee would rather let his actions speak, but he admits the frustration is building to a point where he may have to start putting everything and everyone on blast.

“It’s crossed my mind a couple times, I’m not gonna lie,” Lee said. “It’s hard not to consider it. But I feel like, one way or another, it’s just a matter of time before I get to the top of that mountain. I’ve been enjoying my life before it gets to that point. Because there’s a lot of stress that comes with being at the top like that, so I’ve been enjoying it and letting it come with time. But when I see something that’s a little off the wall, I’ll call them out on it.”

Until he’s told otherwise, Lee will continue to work to land Northcutt as his next opponent, but should that fight be taken away from him, the Las Vegas transplant would love the opportunity to avenge his first loss under the UFC banner.

Lee faced Al Iaquinta in his promotional debut at UFC 169 in February of 2013, and the unanimous decision loss was the first of his professional career. Even though the fight is nearly three years in the past, Lee still believes he’s the better fighter in the equation.

‘I’m still looking at Iaquinta,” Lee said. “I got a one-track mind. Once I set my mind to getting that rematch, I’m still looking for it, even though he’s going through his contract dispute and all that. I just want somebody for a showcase fight, somebody with a little name recognition. That’s it. I think that’s what I’m missing. This next fight, as long as it’s a guy that’s recognizable, it’ll be a breakthrough fight for me.”

While Lee may be pining to face the New Yorker again inside the cage, a recent move made by Iaquinta signals it could be some time before the Serra-Longo product competes again.

Iaquinta was slated to face Thiago Alves at the promotion’s inaugural event in New York City, UFC 205, but issues with his contracted pay prevented Iaquinta from signing on the dotted line. And even though there is no love lost between between the two, Lee has nothing but props for the stance his rival is taking with the UFC.

“I’ll definitely support him,” Lee said. “We gotta stick together. Even though I don’t like the guy, even though I’ll whoop his ass on any given day, all fighters gotta stick together anyway. I’ll definitely support it.

“It’s gotta be hard. He hasn’t been able to fight, I think, for a year and a half, ever since he pulled out of that fight when they offered me July 15 after (Gilbert) Melendez pulled out. Then he said his knee hurt, so he’s been ducking and dodging out of fighting for two years almost. That’s hard, especially without sponsors. How can you make money? How can you live?

“He doesn’t know if he’ll fight for another two years, so he’s gotta make his money. I definitely send my support.”

And while Lee promises to lend his support to Iaquinta’s push for better pay, he also offered a solution to keep a bit of money in the New Yorker’s pockets.

“I think he was almost trying to stick it to Joe (Silva),” Lee said. “Joe can be kind of a hard ass. I think Joe probably said some nasty sh*t to him, so he was like, ‘OK, fu*k you.’ In the long run, he’s going to end up fu*king himself. But I think he was more than likely trying to stick it to Joe.

“If anything, he can come out and be my sparring partner. I’ll beat him up for free. I’ll pay him per round, give him $100, $200 per round just to beat him up for the fun of it.”