Kevin Lee intends on making the move back down to lightweight, and he’s willing to head to hostile territory in his return.
He wants to face Islam Makhachev in Russia on the UFC on ESPN+ 21 card set to take place in Moscow on Nov. 9.
“Me and Islam, on a co-main event in Moscow, that sounds kind of good to me,” Lee said in a recent interview with ESPN.
Makhachev (18-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC), who’s coming off a unanimous decision win over Davi Ramos at UFC 242, wasted no time in responding. While surely fighting at home for Makhachev would be ideal, it appears that he won’t be ready until the beginning of next year.
“@MoTownPhenomyou ain’t in position to call date and location. I was calling you out 2years in a row. Now you wait till January and I’ll give you a lesson boy.”
Lee (17-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC), who’s been quite inactive on Twitter, did not offer a response to Makhachev, and reiterated his interest in fighting Makhachev once again in an interview with Chael Sonnen on Sunday.
“To go over to Russia and fight Islam, there’s something there for me,” Lee said. “He won that last fight and did it impressively against a guy who’s really good on the ground.”
“The Motown Phenom” has recently made a lot of changes in his career. After an unsuccessful move up to welterweight with a fourth-round submission loss to Rafael dos Anjos at UFC on ESPN+ 10, it appears he’s heading back to lightweight. He will also be making the move to Tristar Gym in Montreal to train with coach Firas Zahabi and former welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
One of the motivating factors to make his move back down to 155, is the continued dominance of lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov, whom Lee has always wanted to fight.
“After seeing that Khabib fight, and seeing how dominant he was, he kind of woke me up a little bit,” Lee said. “He returned my focus back to lightweight. Islam is going to be the one.”
