"I'll be a millionaire within the year" - Kevin Lee on moving forward with his MMA career after being cut from the UFC
Kevin Lee is confident he will become a millionaire within a year after being released by the world's biggest MMA promotion on Tuesday.
Lee is currently on a two-fight losing streak. His most recent fight was to Daniel Rodriguez via unanimous decision in a welterweight clash at UFC on ESPN: Barboza vs. Chikadze in August this year.
'The Motown Phenom' unsuccessfully challenged for the interim UFC lightweight championship once. He was submitted by Tony Ferguson using a triangle choke at UFC 216 in October 2017.
Speaking on the latest episode of The MMA Hour YouTube show on Wednesday, Kevin Lee claimed that he already had offers from three different MMA promotions and was negotiating with them.
"My only goal and objective right now is to show that they [UFC] just made one of the worst mistakes. You know I'll be a millionaire within the year. So that's pretty fun. I got three different offers yesterday. Right now, we are gonna do a little bit of negotiating. The thing is I am still serving a suspension. So I might just wait till the end of the suspension. Maybe, if I would have found [about the UFC release] a month ago, I'd already be signed with a promotion. But we will see."
Watch Kevin Lee and several other fighters in conversation with Ariel Helwani below:
Lee is 18-7 in his professional MMA career. He has mostly fought in the lightweight division and made the jump to welterweight in May 2019. He also has multiple catchweight bouts to his name after missing weight.
Kevin Lee was serving a six-month suspension ahead of his UFC release after testing positive for a banned substance
Kevin Lee was suspended for six months following his encounter with Rodriguez. He tested positive for the banned substance Adderall, which he was consuming for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Lee did not apply for a therapeutic-use exemption regarding his medication and his suspension is expected to end on February 28, 2022.
Kevin Lee has been released by the UFC, he confirmed with me. Just a brutal stretch for the former title contender, who is not even 30 years old. Lee is currently serving a suspension after testing positive for a drug he was taking for ADHD. @MMAFighting first reported the news.
Having been released by the UFC, he is now expected to return to action by the second quarter of next year.