EXCLUSIVE | Kevin Lee has an opponent in mind for his next fight

Having recently come up short in an interim lightweight title fight with Tony Ferguson, “The Motown Phenom” Kevin Lee is eager to get back on track and reinsert himself into the title mix.

While he was briefly discussed as a possible opponent for former World Series of Fighting champion Justin Gaethje, Gaethje has now been targeted for a scrap with Dustin Poirier. Now that this Gaethje-Poirier fight has been scheduled, Lee feels he might end up in a fight with Edson Barboza, who recently lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov.

“If a fight comes up and it makes perfect sense, then that’s what’s going to happen, but for now I’m traveling, I’m training, and that’s where my focus at,” Lee said of his next outing on the latest stacked episode of BJ Penn Radio. “Yeah, I think Barboza’s the number one I might be gunning for. He called me out a couple weeks ago. I’m trying to do these boys a favor. Barboza took a lot of damage in that fight [with Nurmagomedov]. He might want to sit back and let his brain heal up before he get in there and I whoop his ass again.”

“I’m looking at the longevity for the man,” Lee continued. “He’s got a wife and kids. I’m looking out for they health. So I like the Barboza fight. Barboza breaks easily. I got the perfect style to go up against it. We going to see how that shake up, too. We’ll see where he at. Once his face heals up a little bit more, then I’ll have my people call his people.’

Does a lightweight battle between Kevin Lee and Edson Barboza interest you? How do you think this fight would go? Join the conversation in the comments section!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/22/2018.