UFC lightweight contender Kevin Lee came up short against Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson in the main event of UFC 216 this past weekend. Ferguson and Lee battled it out for the UFC interim lightweight title, but Ferguson was just too much for an exhausted Lee who tapped out to a triangle choke in the third round.
Lee’s weight cut could partly be to blame for his performance, especially after hearing what the weight cut experience was like for him.
“That last hour that I had to cut that extra pound, I don’t even know how I got it off.” Lee said to Chael Sonnen on his podcast. “I don’t know where I was. Your mind just doesn’t want to work when you’re in those kind of states. . .
“Like I said, I don’t even remember much. I don’t really know, I was kind of out of it and I just left it up to my coaches and they got the job done. Once I actually made the weight, as soon as I sat down I was more exhausted than I – I don’t think I’ve ever really felt like that in my life. I was carrying the stress of the whole event too so it was a lot.”
“He’s the rightful champion,” Lee said at the UFC 216 post fight press conference. “I tried to make it a dog fight with him. I tried to let him know it’s going to be a fight at the end of the first. You have to put that man out. There’s no quit in him. He kept coming forward, and he kept the pressure. And he did what a champion is supposed to do, and I wish him the best. . .
Despite how upset Lee was in the octagon following the loss, he still gave the new champion his props.
“I know how tough Tony Ferguson is, and he’s the best man in the world.”
Take a look at an emotional Kevin Lee from some behind the scenes footage of UFC 216.
