The UFC Return Of The ‘Motown Phenom’ – Kevin Lee

This Saturday’s UFC Fight Night Strickland vs Magomedov sees the UFC return of ‘the Motown phenom’ Kevin Lee. Leaving the UFC after an 18-fight stint with the company, Lee joined Eagle FC, where he fought and beat Diego Sanchez via a unanimous decision in March last year.

Before signing back with the UFC there were talks of Lee moving over to the PFL, however, in a recent interview with ESPN Lee told reporters “I had to ask myself, am I in it for the money or to fight the best fighters in the world”.

On his return to the Octagon, the former lightweight interim title challenger will be facing Rinat Fakhretdinov which is by no means an easy task for a comeback fight. Fakhretdinov’s record boasts 20 wins and 1 loss, that being in 2013. He is also currently 2-0 within the UFC. As expected for a Russian fighter, he does his best work as a grappler and has has never been finished.

Lee’s return has gone somewhat under the radar, featuring on the early prelim section of the card. With a point to prove, this could bring back the hungry Kevin Lee that came so close to defeating Tony Ferguson back in 2017 to become the interim champ. However, with his return Lee has decided to come back in the welterweight division, where he last fought in the UFC.

With the stacked nature of the division, nothing says welcome back to the UFC like a match-up with a Russian wrestling specialist with just one loss in over 20 fights.

This is just the start of Lee’s return to the UFC and he has a big hurdle to try and clear straight off the bat. Whilst his first run with the promotion may have ended with back-to-back losses, former champion Charles Oliveira and Daniel Rodriguez are not bad names to come up short against.

After his back-to-back defeats to Al Iaquinta and Rafael Dos Anjos (two more names that are not bad losses), everyone remembers how exciting Lee’s comeback win at lightweight and knockout of the year contender against Gregor Gillespie was. If he is able to recapture some of that momentum with a win, even with the fight buried down on the early prelims of a fight night at the Apex, people will start talking.