Yesterday in Las Vegas, during the official UFC 216 pre-fight media day, event headliner Kevin Lee confessed to still having 19 pounds to cut in order to make championship weight for Saturday’s main event.
Cutting weight is nothing new for UFC fighters, but the amount Lee plans on cutting with just 20-hours to go until weigh-ins alarmed executives, pundits, fans and analysts.
Lee though, he’s cool as a cucumber, stating his MASSIVE one-day weight-cut is easy, and really no big deal.
Lee told the media on Thursday,
“I feel like a million bucks, still full of a lot of energy. I’ve got a big weight cut ahead of me, so that’s where the focus is right now. Right now I’m about ’74, something like that. I have a decent little cut. It ain’t going to be nothing different. I’ve cut from a lot higher than that.”
“It’s going to be smooth. I carry a lot of muscle, so it’s a lot easier for me to cut the water, and I’m just not a b*tch about it. I had tiramisu last night. So, look, look, the sh*t gonna hurt when it gets down to the last (few pounds), when it gets down to the end, but I’m gonna man up about it, especially when you’re talking 20 percent (of my purse). There’s a lot of things I’d do for 40 or 50 g’s, I’ll tell you that right now.”
“We’ve done this every camp. He’s a huge dude. And I would venture to say Tony’s probably not a lot smaller at this point. You’re talking about the big, big guys in this division and they all have tough weight cuts, and until we make a change in the rules, that’s going to be what it is. Until they add some weight classes or change how the weight cuts go, if you want to be a dominant force, you’re going to be pushing that envelope. But we’ve never missed weight and I don’t expect it to be a problem in this one either.”
“I just enjoy tiramisu. I ain’t no b*tch. If you’re out there and tiramisu is the reason why you don’t go out there and make a lot of money and put your life on the line for these folks — and I ain’t got 4,000 Russians that are showing up for me, so that’s up to him (Nurmagomedov). He knows.”
Here’s Lee’s full pre-fight media scrum from Thursday in Las Vegas.
The UFC 216 weigh-ins starts Friday at 12:30 p.m. ET. We will keep you posted on Lee’s weight cut as soon as the information becomes available.
