Javier Mendez believes Kevin Lee’s mind wasn’t in the right place heading into UFC on ESPN 48.
Lee’s (19-8 MMA, 11-8 UFC) return to the UFC was spoiled by Rinat Fakhretdinov (22-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC), who submitted him this past Saturday at the UFC Apex.
In the lead-up to his return, Lee mentioned the holes he used to see in the game of Mendez’s student, former unbeaten lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, and also spoke about his disappointment fighting at the UFC Apex. The American Kickboxing Academy head coach said Lee should have focused more on his opponent.
“For me, some of the warning signs for me where Kevin was talking about, ‘I’m beyond these little shows at the Apex,’ his attitude – your focus should have been winning and your opponent,” Mendez said on his podcast.
“Other comments were, ‘Khabib, I saw holes in his game.’ You should be focused more on your fight and forget anybody else, forget anybody in particular, just focus on yours because everybody was dying to see what you were going to do, especially at welterweight.”
Less than a minute into the fight, Lee was dropped and submitted by a guillotine choke that rendered him unconscious. Lee’s return came after almost two years away from the octagon as the UFC released him in November 2021.
“In my opinion, he got caught,” Mendez said. “Was it because he wasn’t focused enough on his opponent or he overlooked his opponent? I don’t know. I have no idea. I just know that what he was doing, he shouldn’t have been doing. It should have never came up about not fighting at the Apex. He should have been solely focused on his job at hand to beat a really, really tough opponent.”
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