Desperate for sports? Kevin Lee wants to entertain on tonight’s UFC card

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, March 14, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Kevin Lee is currently the envy of all American athletes.

The longtime local lightweight, who now holds his training camps at the famed Tristar Gym in Montreal, will be one of the few who actually gets to compete this weekend. The UFC’s decision to move forward with its fight schedule, despite cancellations from every other major sports league, means today's Fight Night card from Brasilia, Brazil, is a go.

Lee will face Charles Oliveira in the main event of the 12-fight card, which airs starting at noon on ESPN+.

“I’m good with fighting in an empty arena,” Lee tweeted earlier this week. “Let’s not panic too crazy, let us fight, entertain the people stuck at home.”

The UFC canceled all fight-week events, including a planned media day, after the accelerated worldwide spread of coronavirus that included both the United States and Brazil. But with all the fighters and staff already safely on site, UFC President Dana White was determined to put on not only the Brazilian event but the rest of the promotion’s upcoming schedule.

On ESPN Thursday night, White said he secured the blessing of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to do so.

“They’re saying, ‘Be cautious. Be careful, but live your life and stop panicking,’” White said on "SportsCenter." “Instead of panicking, we’re actually getting out there and working with doctors and health officials and the government to figure out how to keep the sport safe and how to keep putting on events.”

There’s been a predictable amount of backlash to the decision to persevere, especially given reports that fighters on today's card were not tested for the virus. White said that all fighters on upcoming American cards to be held locally at the UFC Apex will be tested, but there was apparently not enough lead time going into UFC Fight Night: Lee vs. Oliveira.

Even with Brasilia’s Ginasio Nilson Nelson arena being limited to fighters and essential staff, that could leave fighters susceptible.

But Lee doesn’t seem worried about it, and agree or disagree with what the UFC is doing, it’s easy to see why from his perspective. This is a massive opportunity for the 27-year-old to inch toward a level he’s sought ever since uprooting his life six years ago and moving from Detroit to Las Vegas in search of combat-sports stardom.

With no other sports going on and people mostly confined to their homes, tonight’s fight should have high viewership. And Lee has both the charisma and fighting style to capture it.

“I do so many things in training that the world hasn’t even really seen yet,” Lee said in a video interview distributed by the UFC. “They’ve seen me grow up in the octagon, but I haven’t really matured into the fighter I can be yet.”

Lee appeared to be on the fast track to UFC gold three years ago, as he won nine of 10 fights after his relocation to Las Vegas including four straight stoppages at the end of the run. He got an interim lightweight fight against Tony Ferguson at UFC 216 in October 2017 and lost via triangle choke in the third round.

That’s when things started going sideways. The unexpected death of Xtreme Couture’s Robert Follis two months later affected everyone in the local mixed martial arts community, but especially Lee.

He’s said he couldn’t find anyone locally he felt as comfortable with as Follis, which was potentially a contributing factor to losing two of three fights after his failed title bid. He began traveling and trying out other gyms before finding Tristar last summer where he clicked with head coach Firas Zihabi and former two-division UFC champion Georges St. Pierre.

The results were immediate. In his first fight under Tristar’s banner, Lee was an underdog to undefeated prospect Gregor Gillespie before knocking him out with a head kick in the first round.

“I knew I had to put him out and had to make a big statement,” Lee said. “I felt like I got the job done.”

Although Lee is a slight favorite this time around — he’s offered at a minus-145 (risking $1.45 to win $1) at Circa sports books — Oliveira is no easy task. The 30-year-old is a 10-year UFC veteran who’s won his last six fights and holds the promotional record with 13 lifetime submissions.

If he beats Lee via stoppage, Oliveira will tie Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone’s record with 16 UFC finishes. Lee missed weight ahead of the fight — weighing in 2.5 pounds over the limit at 158.5 pounds — but the matchup will go on with him sacrificing 20 percent of his purse to Oliveira.

Few will remember that detail in the long term, though. There’s too much other turbulence going on around tonight’s card.

It’s reasonable to be critical of the UFC’s handling of the coronavirus, but also understandable why fighters like Lee are determined to proceed. This is Lee’s livelihood and a big moment he’s worked to reach.

Now all he wants is for the fans to witness him deliver.

“We’ve reached out to most of our fighters,” White said on ESPN. “We haven’t reached out to the whole roster yet. We have 600-something fighters, but these guys are ready to go. They want to fight. They want to compete, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep them safe.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.