Lee bloodies, beats Barboza in UFC lightweights tilt
Kevin Lee missed weight but was on the mark with injecting himself back into the UFC lightweight title picture.
Lee pounded Edson Barboza until blood streamed down his face and won a 155-pound bout when the fight was stopped via TKO in the fifth round on Saturday night.
Lee kept the fight on the ground at Boardwalk Hall and — except for absorbing one stiff kick to the face — dominated until the doctors stopped the bout with Barboza wearing the crimson mask as he sat against the cage.
“I wanted to go all five rounds and show my complete game,” Lee said.
Lee got the signature win he needed to remain in the lightweight championship picture and immediately took aim on the division’s champ, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
You folks know what time it is. It’s Khabib time , baby,” he said.
It was Lee’s time to shine in AC.
Lee took the fight to the mat and spent the first round landing punishing strikes and did more of the same in the second. Lee connected with a series of shots to the right of Barboza’s face with more brute force than in any bench-clearing baseball brawl.
Barboza rocked and wobbled Lee when he caught him with a spinning head kick in the third but couldn’t finish him. Lee again dragged Barboza to the ground and fans booed and cursed as they wrestled on the mat.
Barboza was coming off a unanimous decision loss to Nurmagomedov, who won the 155-pound title stripped from an inactive Conor McGregor earlier this month. Lee was choked out by Tony Ferguson in October. Had Barboza and Lee won those bouts, they might have had a title fight lined up already instead of trying to use a Fight Night card to climb back into contention.
“I can do it all. I feel I’m the most complete fighter in the division,” Lee said. “I wanted to go out there and show it.”
Lee failed to make weight by 2 pounds for the fight, forcing him to forfeit 20 percent of his purse.