{"id":392902,"date":"2021-08-24T06:24:57","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T13:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=392902"},"modified":"2021-08-24T06:24:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T13:24:57","slug":"kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former UFC lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee believes that he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-gets-short-notice-replacement-opponent-for-ufc-vegas-35-takes-on-rising-contender-daniel-rodriguez\/\">Lee makes his return to the Octagon after nearly 18 months away from the cage when he fights Daniel Rodriguez this Saturday night at UFC Vegas 35<\/a>. After losing by submission to current UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira in his last fight, Lee decided that he will be moving back up to 170lbs. He fought in the welterweight division back in 2019 when he lost via submission to Rafael dos Anjos. Despite not having a win in the division, however, Lee believes that he is already one of the top-five fighters in the UFC welterweight division.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=X1iL-kjQp-M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ariel Helwani&#8217;s The MMA Hour<\/a>, Lee explained why he believes he is already an elite fighter at 170lbs and why he believes he can give the top fighters a tough challenge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I\u2019m already top five, so this is going to be one of those fights to show the difference in what I\u2019ve got,\u201d Lee said (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/middleeasy.com\/mma-news\/kevin-lee-top-5-welterweight-division\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Middle Easy<\/a>). \u201cI\u2019ve been watching the whole time and I see nobody around here. I see nobody that can bring what I bring to the table. I see nobody that\u2019s got the skills that I\u2019ve got, and can do everything in a complete package. I don\u2019t see none of them, so yeah, it\u2019s me. (Usman) is a great champ. He\u2019s a great champ, I\u2019ll give it to him. But I don\u2019t think he\u2019s really been challenged by anybody, and I\u2019m here to give him that challenge,&#8221; added Lee. &#8220;Leon (Edwards) is not really up there. Colby (Covington\u2019s) going to put up a good fight. Leon will make a good fight, but he don\u2019t bring the complete package. He might bring some decent fighting skills, but it takes more than that in this game, I feel like. There\u2019s some big names, yeah some decent names. But they don\u2019t do sh*t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Do you think Kevin Lee will defeat Daniel Rodriguez at UFC Vegas 35 and move closer to the top-five in the UFC welterweight division?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former UFC lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee believes that he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division. Lee makes his return to the Octagon after nearly 18 months away from the cage when he fights Daniel Rodriguez this Saturday night at UFC Vegas 35. After losing by submission to current UFC lightweight [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54477,"featured_media":313778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[19995,39610],"tags":[],"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 believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former UFC lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee believes that he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division.\" \/>\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\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former UFC lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee believes that he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-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=\"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kevin-Lee-9.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=\"Adam D Martin\" \/>\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=\"Adam D Martin\" \/>\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\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Adam D Martin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1\"},\"headline\":\"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/\"},\"wordCount\":378,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Kevin Lee\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2021\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/\",\"name\":\"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"Former UFC lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee believes that he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"UFC\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1\",\"name\":\"Adam D Martin\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/adam-d-martin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division | BJPenn.com","description":"Former UFC lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee believes that he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Former UFC lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee believes that he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kevin-Lee-9.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Adam D Martin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adam D Martin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/"},"author":{"name":"Adam D Martin","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1"},"headline":"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division","datePublished":"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/"},"wordCount":378,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Kevin Lee","UFC"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2021","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/","name":"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-24T13:24:57+00:00","description":"Former UFC lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee believes that he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kevin-lee-believes-he-is-already-a-top-five-fighter-in-the-ufc-welterweight-division\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MMA News","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"UFC","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Kevin Lee believes he is already a top-five fighter in the UFC welterweight division"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1","name":"Adam D Martin","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/adam-d-martin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54477"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}