At UFC Fight Night 128 lightweight Kevin Lee put on a performance so Khabib Nurmagomedov-like that countless fans called for a title shot vs. ‘The Eagle’. However, Lee missed weight for the fight. And Nurmagomedov has missed weight multiple times. There is some question as to whether the UFC would take the chance that neither fighter miss.
During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Lee discussed the miss, and steps he will take to prevent a reoccurrence.
I think there could’ve been some adjustments that I could’ve made, especially on the timing, said Lee, as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatt for MMA Fighting. The timing was off a little bit too much, and my scale was a little bit different too. When I weighed myself on my scale upstairs, I was almost a pound-and-a-half heavier than what I thought. So it just was minor technical difficulties really when it came down to it. My body never reached a point where it was breaking down. It just became that I ran out of time.
At UFC 216 Lee failed to make weight the first time for an interim title fight vs. Tony Ferguson; as they do for title fights, the Nevada State Athletic Commission gave the fighter an extra hour, and he eventually made it. He described that cut as worse that the latest. Some states provide two extra hours; however, the highly respected New Jersey State Athletic Commission does not extend the hour, to Lee’s dismay.
It wasn’t nowhere near the same level, said Lee. Especially, they were throwing boiling hot water on me for that Tony Ferguson weight cut, so it wasn’t nowhere near that level. I felt like I could’ve still pushed. I felt like still I could’ve went. The New Jersey athletic commission for whatever reason doesn’t allow that extra hour, which I wasn’t really clear on, and the hotel that we were staying at, they wouldn’t even let us in to use the sauna until like 5:45, something like that, when they promised that they’d let us in at 5:00.
When you’re going to these new commissions, you don’t really know the rules until you get there. When I talk about a weight cut as big as mine, it takes weeks and weeks and weeks to plan. Even if they tell me the day of, it’s like, okay, well, I’ve been planning for six weeks, I’ve been cutting this weight to get down to a certain level, and I feel like I have it down to a very scientific spot, because I try to spend as little amount of time dehydrated.
Lee did not use a nutritionist, which he now realizes wasn’t wise.
Especially for the week of, I’m definitely going to need one just to get that extra little stress and that extra little load off me, and not have me doing it,” he said. “A lot of the notes that I look at and things are from old weight cuts, and I’m just getting bigger. So there’s definitely going to be some adjustments that could be made. But 155, I’m here to stay.
The UFC does not give bonus awards to fighters who miss weight, which Lee feels unfairly pulled Barboza from contention for a Fight of the Night award.
I just don’t see that system being okay, Lee said. The 20 percent [fine], that’s in my contract, I understand that. I kinda knew that going in. It’s not being eligible for the bonuses and all this — because it doesn’t take away from the performance, I feel like. Barboza put on a hell of a performance and I feel like you could’ve given the man some scratch for that.
He went out there and he could’ve easily turned away during the first round even, gave up his neck and it would’ve been done, but Barboza stuck in there for five full rounds and took a beating on that. And he can’t get a ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus because of — it’s not even a rule, it’s just like kinda in good faith or something, you know?
Rather than criticising the UFC for not wanting to give an extra $50,000 to a fighter who failed to meet a contractual obligation, Lee might instead acknowledge that failing to manage weight professionally hurts all parties.
