Kevin Lee Fears Death Is Inevitable With Current Weight Cutting Protocols
Weight cutting continues to be a hot topic in MMA.
Kevin Lee is the latest fighter to voice his concerns about the weight cutting problems the sport is facing and has been one of the biggest advocates for a proposed 165-pound weight class.
Speaking with MMA Fighting’s Luke Thomas on the latest edition of The MMA Hour, the “Motown Phenom” has no plans of quieting down.
“Everybody knows that this weight-cutting thing is a problem, but nobody is coming up with no ******* solutions,” Lee said. “Everybody is kind of waiting for somebody to die. And I don’t feel like that’s the right thing to do. I think you have to take at least one step in the right direction and then just see how it goes. There’s really no downside to it.”
The California State Athletic Commision (CSAC) and the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC) have been at the forefront of the extreme weight cutting dilemma instituting a 10-point reform plan in the last year and approving the 165-pound weight class. The UFC is yet to open up any new divisions including the super welterweight class Lee has been so vocal about.
“Most people, especially 155ers that I talk to, they all want it,” Lee said. “We all are about the same size. A lot of these [lightweights] are [185, 190]. … We’re all doing the same thing to compete against each other. It doesn’t make sense. If we can make it a little bit safer and we can make it a little bit more fair, that’s all I’m calling for. Just a fair, even playing field for me to go out there and compete with somebody without having to kill myself to do it.”
“There’s so many guys, there’s so much talent,” Lee said. “The talent is there. It’s the same thing they said about adding 125 for the women. Yeah, it’s gonna take some time to cultivate that, but I think it’s gonna even be easier, because you have so many guys in between these weight classes right now that could fill that up. Where it’s at is the talent is always gonna show up.”
The 25-year-old Lee currently fights in the lightweight division, a weight that he has had an increasingly hard time making. Lee’s struggles to make 155 pounds were on full display at UFC 216 last October, a weight cut that he said, “damn near killed him”.
“That’s what it’s gonna take,” Lee said. “It’s unfortunate. And people kind of gloss over it, too. Uriah Hall, who I train with, the man had a seizure cutting weight for fights. It kind of gets swept under the rug. And it kind of goes, ‘Oh, he was doing his own thing.’ … The man had a seizure getting ready for a fight. That’s not a joke. It’s more serious than I think people realize. And it’s my health on the line, too, along with it. If all I gotta do is just step up and talk about it and try and make some change happen, then that’s what I’m gonna do. But the rest of these mother f*ckers, they’re too scared. They won’t do it, because they don’t want to step up and say what they really feel.”
The “Motown Phenom” is under the belief that it’s going to take something tragic for the UFC to make any real significant changes to status quo.
Watch Lee’s entire interview here:
