"Pick on somebody your own size" - Kevin Lee reacts to Khabib Nurmagomedov's recent comments on UFC ring girls
![Khabib Nurmagomedov (left) Kevin Lee (right) [Images Courtesy: @khabib_nurmagomedov @khabib_nurmagomedov on Instagram]](https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2021/08/eba24-16299050312580-800.jpg?w=500)
UFC welterweight Kevin Lee has responded to former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov's comments aimed at the UFC ring girls.
In a recent interview originally conducted in Russian, which was later translated by Twitter user '@manny_mma_,' Khabib stated that:
“Ring girls are the most unnecessary people in mma, what function to they bring? You turn on the tv and you see it’s the second, why are they walking there.”
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA's Andrew Whitelaw, Kevin Lee reacted to Nurmagomedov's comments with the following:
"Let me step up for them, let me stand up for them. Come on. Leave the ring girls alone. They were here way before him. They been at way more fights than him. So, why you going after the ring girls, pick on somebody your own size. I guess a man don't fight no more and feel like he need to fight everybody. Leave the ring girls alone, we need them. We need that spirit in us."
Kevin Lee on Tony Ferguson
One fighter that will be forever linked to both Kevin Lee and Khabib Nurmagomedov is Tony Ferguson. 'El Cucuy' defeated Kevin Lee in a fight for the UFC lightweight interim title. Lee went into that fight with a staph infection, as well as having suffered from a very tough weight cut.
Khabib and Ferguson's past is well documented. The two men were scheduled to fight one another numerous times. Each time the fight came close to taking place, there would be a reason for cancelation, whether it be food poisoning via tiramisu, a broken limb after tripping over TV cables or visa issues due to the pandemic.
During the interview, Kevin Lee was asked whether he still wanted to get the fight against Ferguson back one day. He replied with:
"I honestly don't know if he's interested in it. Not only am I not, I don't even think he is either. So could it happen? Yeah, of course. Anything could happen in this game. We never know. Timing is everything. But I don't necessarily- there's too many good fights out here to be had. That's one of the ones that I've kinda, like you said, I've relived it a lot, I've kinda got past it a little bit."
However, there is one fighter currently competing at 155lbs whom Lee is interested in rematching:
"If anything the Oliveira fight is the one to kind of stick to me. So I think I'll rematch Oliveira a lot more before I rematch Tony."
Check out our full interview with Kevin Lee below: