Kevin Lee could be out for a few years following UFC Brasilia loss to Charles Oliveira

UFC Brasilia was not a good experience for 'The Motown Phenom' Kevin Lee, who lost his fight to Brazilian Charles Oliveira in the third round via submission. Lee was heavily criticized for grappling with Oliveira after submitting, as he was unclear for a second that he had tapped out.

Lee has been training at Tri Star Gym in Canada for a while now, with his fight against Gregor Gillespie being his first under Firas Zahabi. While many expected instant results following the switch, that hasn't been the case for Lee as he has been submitted three times in his last six fights.

Following his loss to Oliveira, Lee told MMAFighting that he had no-one to blame but himself for getting choked out.

“I got choked. I think the fight was going good. I just got choked. I really can’t put it on nothing else but that.”

Lee also admitted that it's going to take a lot of time to polish his skills and that he rushed into this fight.

“I think lightweight’s still my home. I’ve just got to fine tune some things. But I’m going to take a long time. I kind of rushed into this fight. It will probably be a good minute before y’all see me again."

Lee went on to explain that it's likely going to be a few years until he enters the Octagon again.

“I think I’ve got to evaluate some things. I feel like my camp was great. My coaches told me all the right things to do. I abandoned it. It’s all on me on this one. It’s going to be maybe a few years or so.”

He concluded by saying he's planning to work on his jiu-jitsu skills to avoid getting choked out in the the way that he did by Oliveira.

There's no denying that Lee has the potential to be a legitimate top 5 contender at Lightweight, which is currently the most stacked division in the UFC. He still has a lot of time to grow and mature as a fighter and looking at Jorge Masvidal's resurgence in 2019, a few years off might just be what Lee needs.