Kevin Lee Says He Will Send A Message To Khabib By ‘Humiliating’ Al Iaquinta
Kevin Lee will be looking for revenge on Dec 15 when he takes on Al Iaquinta on the UFC’s last UFC on Fox fight card.
“The Mo Town Phenom” has fought just once this year back in April when he defeated Edson Barboza via TKO in Atlantic City. Since then, Lee has been campaigning hard to get back into the UFC lightweight title mix and next month if beats Iaquinta he will be right amongst the top contenders at 155-pounds.
Having fought and lost to Iaquinta in 2014, Lee knows he’s in for a tough night when the two share the Octagon again. Speaking with Submission Radio this week, Lee spoke the different career trajectories both he and Iaquinta have had since their first meeting.
“I think Al is tough,” Lee admitted. “His biggest attribute is that he’s very, very tough and he stays in there for as long as he can and that’s what he’s done. But, at the end of the day, the numbers don’t lie and I’ve had 12 fights since our last fight. He’s only had 6 and he’s taken some time away from the game. He’s started doing real estate and just doing it for the money.
“I’ve really dedicated myself to this and I think I’ve constantly improved and shown new things during fights and shown something new every single fight. From him, you kinda just see the same thing. He’s strong, he’s tough and he’s going to give me a good fight, but he’s going to take a beating in front of the world on Dec 15 and I think he knows that.”
With that said, Lee believes the second meeting between the pair of them will be a very different affair. Having fought twice as many time as Iaquinta since 2014, Lee believes he’s going to show the world that he’s made much bigger improvements.
“I think it’s going to be a totally different fight,” Lee said. “I’m totally different, he might be different. Our first fight was a good fight. I still have a lot of people that hit me up about that fight and they go back and they watch it and they tell me how good it was, but, I think this one is going to be totally different.
“If you watch that first fight and then you look at my last fight, you’re just going to see a totally different body style and a totally different person. That’s what I think you’re going to see again. I’m going to show something new, different.”
With Iaquinta and Lee having no shortage of social media exchanges in the past few years, there will be no love lost when they finally meet again in the Octagon. Whilst focused on putting Iaquinta to the sword, Lee is hoping to send a message to the current UFC lightweight champion.
“There’s a little bit of redemption factor in this for me. I don’t really like Al, he don’t really like me, we come from two totally different lifestyles, but I’m using this to send a message to the rest of the world that I’m on a different level. I’m using this to send a message to Khabib because he already knows, but I’m going to show the rest of the world that I’m on a different level.”
“When I fight Al I’m just going to humiliate him and just show that I’m better than him,” he later added.
Watch the full interview:
