Embarrassingly, Kevin Lee was laid off in late 2021
Speaking of American mixed martial arts star Kevin Lee, I believe many friends are familiar with it. Now only 29 years old, he has already achieved great success in the mixed martial arts arena. In addition to winning the Lightweight Championship at the TWC in the United States, Kevin Lee has also won the UFC Lightweight Interim Championship title in the octagonal cage of the UFC.
Unfortunately, in the last month of 2021, Kevin Lee received a termination notice from the UFC. After playing eighteen UFC games, Kevin Lee had to say goodbye to the UFC arena and become a laid-off reemployer at the start of the new year in 2022.
Once a wrestling genius
Kevin Lee, whose full name is Kevin Jesse Lee Jr., was born on September 4, 1992 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to a family of older sisters and two brothers. At a very young age, Kevin Lee moved with his family to Detroit and grew up there. However, influenced by the Detroit Pistons, Kevin Lee's favorite sport as a child was basketball.
As a senior at Southfield High School in Detroit, Kevin Lee was unexpectedly exposed to the sport of freestyle wrestling and showed amazing talent in the sport. After being admitted to Grand Valley State University in Michigan, usa, he was selected for the varsity team and began representing the school in the National Wrestling Championships (NCAA). By sophomore year, Kevin Lee had completed a 37-game winning streak. However, it was when the school coach had high hopes for him to be able to beat all sides in the NCAA game. Kevin Lee unexpectedly dropped out of school and began to become a professional mixed martial artist.
Career
On August 27, 2011, after a period of mixed martial arts training, Kevin Lee tested the waters with the semi-professional tournament King of the Cage - KOTC. In the game, the skillful wrestling technique gave Kevin Lee the upper hand and defeated his opponent Tom Statt naked in the first leg of the match by 1 minute and 20 seconds. The victory in this match strengthened Kevin Lee's confidence in the professional mixed martial arts sport. In 2012, Kevin Lee officially began his career as a professional MMA.
From 2012 to 2013, Kevin Lee competed in a number of minor events, including the Instinct MMA - Instinct Fighting, IFL, MFL, MFS, TWC, CFC, and achieved a record of 7 wins. In the TWC No. 20 tournament held on November 16, 2013, Kevin Lee defeated his opponent Eric Muon with a cross just 40 seconds after the first round, winning the TWC Lightweight Championship.
Signed up for the UFC
The impressive results and popularity accumulated since college have made the world's no. 1 mixed martial arts event UFC also start to pay attention to this young man. In 2014, the UFC announced the signing of 21-year-old Kevin Lee. However, in the UFC, the ring that brings together the best players in the world, Kevin Lee did not start well.
On February 1, 2014, in the UFC 169 tournament in Newark, New Jersey, United States, Kevin Lee lost to Al Iaquinta by consensus, suffering the first defeat of his MMA career. After losing the game, Kevin Lee underwent serious analysis and reflection, moved from his hometown of Michigan to Las Vegas, signed a new boxing gym and began to improve his technique.
On July 6, 2014, in the Finals of The Finals of The Crusaders 19th, Kevin Lee made his debut in the UFC arena by defeating Jesse Ronson 2-1 in a 2-1 split after three rounds of the tournament.
On September 27, 2014, at the UFC 178 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, we saw a very mature and well-adapted Kevin Lee, who defeated veteran Jon Tucker from Guam in a unanimous 3-0 decision.
peak
From 2015 to 2017, Kevin Lee maintained a solid record for appearances in the UFC. Almost always participated in three UFC matches a year and achieved a record of 7 wins and 2 losses.
In the UFC 2016 tournament held on October 7, 2017, Kevin Lee and Tony Ferguson began to compete for the UFC Lightweight Provisional Title, and although he was sadly demoted in the third leg, Kevin Lee used his performance to prove that he was absolutely worthy of the status of a lightweight top boxer.
The trough of life
Just when all boxing fans thought that Kevin Lee would soon emerge from the shadow of defeat and challenge for the UFC title again soon after, no one expected that this would be Kevin Lee's last highlight moment.
Since 2018, Kevin Lee has played five games but lost 4 of them. Even more frightening than the defeat, Kevin Lee became suspicious of himself, and he began to hover between the sub-middleweight and the lightweight.
On May 18, 2019, Kevin Lee, who claimed to be in the top five of the world in the sub-middleweights, was defeated by Rafael dos Anjos in the fourth inning of the 152nd episode of the UFC Fighting Night, and was beaten back to the lightweight level. But back to the familiar lightweights, Kevin Lee didn't win consistently.
On March 14, 2020, Kevin Lee was relegated by Charles Oliveira in the third leg of the UFC Fighting Night Episode 170.
On August 28, 2021, Kevin Lee, who once again tried to return to the sub-middleweights, lost to Daniel Rodriguez in a unanimous 3-0 defeat at the UFC on ESPN 30. To make matters worse, Kevin Lee was found to be taking illicit drugs (amphetamines) during a post-match doping test. Although in interviews afterward, Kevin Lee has always said that he is an adult ADHD patient and has been taking medication since he underwent knee surgery in 2020 to control his condition. But his explanation apparently did not satisfy the Nevada Sports Commission, which oversees drug testing, and UFC President Dana Bai.
Eventually, Kevin Lee was banned for six months and fined $19,526. Originally, kevin Lee was banned for 9-24 months under the Nevada Sports Commission. But because of Kevin Lee's active attitude in cooperating with the investigation and his sincere apology, the Nevada Sports Commission decided to take him lightly. But even so, Kevin Lee will not be able to return to the field until after February 28, 2022. The UFC apparently wouldn't give a boxer like Kevin Lee that long to recover, so in December they sent Kevin Lee a notice of dismissal.
Sources say it came after being banned by the Nevada Sports Commission. Kevin Lee had already anticipated such an ending, so he once drank heavily, anesthetized himself with alcohol, and forgot reality.
A fresh start
Fast forward to 2022, and Kevin Lee has come to terms with the reality that he had to say goodbye to the UFC octagon. Now, Kevin Lee has begun to solve his own problem of layoffs and reemployment. Fortunately, he is not very old, and his strength in a lightweight boxer is still very outstanding, so he should not worry about finding his next home.
It is reported that the MMA mixed martial arts tournament founded by former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov , EFC ( EAGLE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP ) has thrown an olive branch to Kevin Lee and plans to arrange for Kevin Lee to participate in the March 11 tournament in Miami, USA, after the suspension is over.
In order to fully demonstrate its sincerity, the EFC even specially arranged another former UFC star, Diego Sanchez, as Kevin Lee's opponent in the EFC debut.
I hope that Kevin Lee can cherish this hard-won opportunity, find his lost state as soon as possible, and return to the ranks of mimelight lightweight top boxers.
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