Kevin Lee spent a good portion of his UFC career ranked in the division Top 10 and once fought for the interim lightweight title, coming up short against Tony Ferguson at UFC 216 back in late 2017. Despite his contributions to combat sports, which include a jaw-breaking pit stop in PFL, “Motown Phenom” was largely ignored by the promotion (and everyone else) and dumped on the Apex prelims for his final UFC fight.
Lee, 33, suggests his allegiance to Bernie Sanders left him “dead in the water.”
Perhaps that’s why fighters like Michael Chiesa — who was submitted by Lee at UFC Fight Night 112 — get special treatment when it’s time to say goodbye. The 38 year-old “Maverick” retired with a victory over Niko Price last weekend in Seattle.
Sounds like the self-described “Mama’s Boy” got the last laugh.
“I beat Chiesa in his most high-profile fight in the first round,” Lee wrote on Twitter. “He got a hero’s send off in the UFC, fought another retiring fighter in his hometown, mom and wife and everybody there to watch his life story. My last fight in UFC was on the prelim of an Apex Card during Covid against an undefeated up-and-coming Russian. Chiesa tried to fight me in the locker room before the fight I didn’t say a word. Cold game fam.”
Lee (20-9) also dropped five of his final six UFC fights and got submitted in three of those losses.
“I know exactly when I went wrong in the UFCs eyes,” Lee added. “After I won my fight at MSG in 2019 they told me Trump wanted to meet. I snuck into the crowd and left the building. Then I met with Bernie Sanders a week later and did a whole speech for him. At that point I was dead in the water. I was told this. It don’t have nothing to do with Chiesa. Let it be a lesson to any young athletes, leave that politics sh*t alone and don’t f*ck with the Church’s money.”
Lee is referring to his Gregor Gillespie knockout at UFC 244.
With no GFL fight on the horizon (outside of the courtroom), Lee remains unbooked for 2026.
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