{"id":339311,"date":"2020-01-27T06:45:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T14:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=339311"},"modified":"2020-01-27T06:45:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T14:45:16","slug":"kevin-lee-declares-himself-the-uncrowned-champion-of-the-lightweight-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/kevin-lee-declares-himself-the-uncrowned-champion-of-the-lightweight-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Lee declares himself the &#8216;uncrowned champion&#8217; of the lightweight division"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kevin Lee believes he&#8217;s the true champion of the lightweight division.<\/p>\n<p>Lee recently returned to the win column <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kevin-lee\/ufc-244-results-kevin-lee-brutally-kos-gregor-gillespie-video\/\">with a massive knockout win over Gregor Gillespie at UFC 244<\/a>. Following the win, &#8220;The Motown Phenom&#8221; is set to headline <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/charles-oliveira\/kevin-lee-vs-charles-oliveira-targeted-for-ufc-brasilia-main-event\/\">UFC Brasilia against Charles Oliveira. <\/a>He then plans to fight Islam Makhachev in Russia.<\/p>\n<p>For him, it&#8217;s all about remaining active.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;I want to stay active and plus I feel like I\u2019m the uncrowned champion anyway. I have to fight all these dudes anyway,&#8221; Lee said to BJPENN.com. &#8220;So, I may as well stay active, get some more experience out there. This will also be a tough fight [against Oliveira], he\u2019s in the prime of his career but I like to fight.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lee considers himself the uncrowned champion because he believes everyone wants to fight him, just like they do with the actual champion. He also believes it is just a matter of time before he wins the real title which everyone knows is his anyway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;I feel like all these dudes got their eye on me. I know for sure all of them got their eye on me including the guys considered top-five or close to a title shot and even Tony and Khabib,&#8221; Lee said. &#8220;They ain\u2019t going to put my name in their mouth but they all know that I\u2019m coming up. But, they all know that\u2019s my title. They can continue to jockey for it but they all know eventually that\u2019s my title and I\u2019m coming after it. I haven\u2019t really lost to a man at lightweight yet. I\u2019ve lost some fights but I ain\u2019t lost to a man yet.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>That is why Kevin Lee will continue to fight down in the rankings as he says the champion always has to fight down. But Lee says after he beats Oliveira and Makhachev the goal is to fight for the real title and become the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ufc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UFC&#8217;s<\/a> undisputed champion.<\/p>\n<p>What do you make of Kevin Lee saying he&#8217;s the uncrowned champion of the lightweight division?<\/p>\n<p><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 1\/27\/2020.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kevin Lee believes he&#8217;s the true champion of the lightweight division. Lee recently returned to the win column with a massive knockout win over Gregor Gillespie at UFC 244. Following the win, &#8220;The Motown Phenom&#8221; is set to headline UFC Brasilia against Charles Oliveira. He then plans to fight Islam Makhachev in Russia. For him, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54463,"featured_media":295180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2674,19995,39610],"tags":[39616],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kevin Lee declares himself the &#039;uncrowned champion&#039; of the lightweight division | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kevin Lee believes he&#039;s the uncrowned champion of the lightweight division and everyone knows it&#039;s just a matter of time before he becomes the real champ.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/kevin-lee-declares-himself-the-uncrowned-champion-of-the-lightweight-division\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kevin Lee declares himself the &#039;uncrowned champion&#039; of the lightweight division | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kevin Lee believes he&#039;s the uncrowned champion of the lightweight division and everyone knows it&#039;s just a matter of time before he becomes the real champ.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/kevin-lee-declares-himself-the-uncrowned-champion-of-the-lightweight-division\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-27T14:45:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kevin-Lee-8.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cole Shelton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cole Shelton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/kevin-lee-declares-himself-the-uncrowned-champion-of-the-lightweight-division\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/kevin-lee-declares-himself-the-uncrowned-champion-of-the-lightweight-division\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cole Shelton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/700e11a4d77666aed250058808e16134\"},\"headline\":\"Kevin Lee declares himself the &#8216;uncrowned champion&#8217; 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