‘Feeling like a world champion again’

Thursday morning, Kevin Lee sat in an airport with a plastic cup of Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee, awaiting his flight to Detroit.

It was an unfamiliar process, considering how familiar the destination was. Saturday, Lee (19-8) returns to MMA competition for a homecoming fight in Wayne, Mich., at Lights Out Championship 17 on Spectation Sports. It’ll be his first fight near his home city since November 2013.

“It’s only fitting that it ends up back home, back where it all started,” Lee told MMA Junkie on Thursday. “I feel like I’m almost restarting my career.”

In a lot of ways, Lee is restarting. He flipped the on-off switch twice over the past two years. In February 2023, Lee made his long-awaited UFC return after a brief departure, and was rendered unconscious in 55 seconds by Rinat Fakhretdinov.

“As I did that jump and tore my knee a little bit, I had kind of checked out of that (Fakhretdinov) fight,” Lee said. “Not many people are going to notice this, but I even turned my back to my opponent and was mouthing to my brother, ‘I just f*cked my knee up bad.’ Honestly, I just stopped the fight right then and there before it happened. I wasn’t as focused as I needed to be in that fight.”

There was soul-searching, yes, but also physical recovery. Lee said he’d dealt with a torn ACL since a March 2022 bout vs. Diego Sanchez and fought through it in the Fakhretdinov fight.

“As much as I’ve dove into that and as challenging as that is, fighting is still in my heart,” Lee said. “I still love this sh*t. I still knew after a few months I was going to do this again. I started training heavy, maybe in February. I started really training. Then, in June, I started really feeling like, ‘OK, this is the old me again.’ Probably in the last two months, I’ve been feeling like a world champion again.”

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JULY 01: (L-R) Rinat Fakhretdinov of Russia punches Kevin Lee in a welterweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on July 01, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Despite having debuted in the UFC a decade ago, Lee is still only 32. He fought for an interim title vs. Tony Ferguson in the UFC 216 main event in October 2017. Despite his name and 11-8 UFC record mainly against tough competition, Lee didn’t get a second fight that stint.

“They didn’t really have much conversation for me,” Lee said. “They pretty much just said, ‘No. All right. You want to come back? Come back. But go somewhere else,’ basically. I even offered to go on Dana White’s Contender Series. Again, I’m not really sure what the problem is. It’s not numbers. It’s not what I’m willing to do for the company. I’m somebody who fought Tony Ferguson when nobody else wanted to fight Tony, when they needed somebody to fight him for the world title, given that Conor McGregor had just fought Floyd Mayweather. It wasn’t looking good for the company. If I didn’t fight Tony Ferguson at that time, you would’ve had DJ (Demetrious Johnson) and (John) Moraga headline it, which was a good fight, but it wouldn’t have sold. We sold almost double with me on the card. I know what I bring to the company.

“I know I’ve had some legendary moments inside the cage. If they don’t see that, then that’s cool. I can show it. I can prove it. If I end up somewhere else at the end of my career, then that’s just what it is. I’m not going to necessarily be hung up on something. I’m not necessarily going to change who I am.”

Could it be his blatant honesty that came back to bite him? Lee’s not sure.

“I did hear that Dana had a problem with me speaking on the Apex for my last fight, like, ‘Why are we still fighting at the Apex?’ But that’s just how I am,” Lee said. “I’m opinionated. If you ask me a question, I’m going to give you an honest answer. I can’t bite my tongue and act like somebody I’m not just to appease anything. I love the UFC. They built me to who I am. It really built my career and I’m happy it’s gotten me that far. But if it’s no more, then it’s no more. That’s cool.”

Regardless of why he’s not on the roster now, Lee thinks good performances could mend all fences. It begins Saturday at LOC 17 as he battles Thiago Oliveira (17-12-1). Lee has also booked a second fight, in Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA for Nov. 15 vs. Saul Almeida (20-14).

A third UFC stint is in his plans, and Lee thinks the road back kicks off with these two fights.

“I’ve been talking with a guy named Eric Thomas, who is a great motivational speaker,” Lee said. “He said winning changes everything. It don’t matter whatever else is going on. Winning changes everything. That’s what we’re going to start this weekend. After this win, after the next win, it changes everything. I think people just want to see me back, too. I think there are some questions revolving (around) my health. There are some questions revolving the knee injuries and all that stuff. I’m happy to put those things behind me and step into the next chapter. … I don’t owe anybody anything. With that, I’m just looking to go out there, have fun, and compete. I’m not really hung up on the results anymore.”