Kevin Lee is hoping to compete against Justin Gaethje next.
Lee is coming off a first-round submission victory over Michael Chiesa. He’s riding a five-fight winning streak. He hopes to make it six, but his next foe is unknown.
“The Motown Phenom” said he is preparing to coach season 26 of “The Ultimate Fighter” (TUF) and wants “The Highlight” to be the opposing coach. Lee explained to Flo Combat why he’s interested in fighting Gaethje:
“Right now, I’m going for Gaethje. I like the Gaethje fight. Gaethje’s a fun fight, too. Just seeing his mentality–I want to see how many punches he can take. I kind of got that intrigue with Gaethje now.”
Lee may have to wait to get his wish, as Ariel Helwani recently revealed the UFC is looking into a bout with Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez for TUF instead of Lee:
UFC is targeting Justin Gaethje vs. Eddie Alvarez later this year, sources say. There has also been serious talk of them coaching TUF 26.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 11, 2017
Lee went on to say that Alvarez didn’t want to take the role of being on TUF.
“They were supposed to do Eddie [Alvarez] vs. Gaethje. Eddie didn’t want to take the fight. And it looks like they’re going to try to rerun Khabib [Numagomedov] vs. Tony [Ferguson]…I still like the Khabib fight, but I kind of like Gaethje even more now.”
