Yeah, so Kevin Lee pretty much got his butt kicked on Saturday night. It was the main event of UFC on ESPN+10, and sure, he was facing ex-lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos, who’s pretty tough. But the loss highlights the fact that we’ve probably seen Lee hit his ceiling in the Octagon, meaning we’ve seen the best of him. Which then begs the question: now what?
In case you missed it, this was how Dos Anjos handled Lee:
4️⃣ takedowns already!@RdosAnjosMMA is putting in work! #UFCRochester pic.twitter.com/CVjoHzPcUt
— UFC (@ufc) May 19, 2019
? ? ? #UFCRochester pic.twitter.com/ErDCp2phkN
— UFC (@ufc) May 19, 2019
Eventually, the former champ made Lee tap out to a choke.
Look, Lee has beaten a lot of dudes since joining the UFC. But he can’t seem to get past Al Iaquinta, and he’s fallen to Tony Ferguson. There’s no shame in taking an “L” to those guys, but how are you ever going to challenge for the belt if you can’t beat the elite? You can’t.
And those fighters who can’t challenge for the belt–and know it–tend to try to be like Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone or Nate Diaz and just be those kinds of fun fighters that fans love to watch. Which, er, certainly isn’t Lee.
So again, what should the UFC do with this guy?