Kevin Lee reacts to news that Adalaide Byrd won’t be judging his UFC 216 fight

On September 16, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin finally met in the boxing ring. Though the majority of fight fans seem to believe Golovkin did enough to win this bout, controversial judge Adalaide Byrd scored it a baffling  118-110 for Canelo. In the wake of this controversy, Byrd has been given a bit of a break by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which means she won’t be judging Kevin Lee’s upcoming UFC 216 interim lightweight title fight with Tony Ferguson. Kevin Lee couldn’t be happier about that. 

“I’ll tell you what, I’m glad Adelaide Byrd is off my damn card,” Lee said during a recent interview with Bloody Elbow. “I’m fighting a Mexican, too. Look, she had me shook. I’m glad they made the right decision and threw her off the card. I don’t necessarily think there was any conspiracy, or nothing crazy like that. I just think she’s a Canelo fan.”

“I thought Canelo was winning the fight, too, in the early rounds, but then in the later rounds GGG definitely took over. I would have maybe scored it 7-5 for GGG. I can see 6-6, so I wasn’t upset with the score, but 10-2? That’s fookin crazy.”

“I’m so glad that they threw her off my card because I’m fighting a Mexican too, a Mexican that likes to push forward. She ain’t going to give me a fair shake, so I’m happy with the decision to pull her off the card. That’s for damn sure!”

Kevin Lee will enter this battle with Ferguson on a five-fight win-streak. If he wins the fight, he’ll be crowned the interim UFC lightweight champion, and could well be the next man to battle undisputed UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.

How do you think Kevin Lee will do against Tony Ferguson? Can he pull of the win? Join the conversation in the comments section!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/1/2017.