UFC veteran Kevin Lee has addressed the viral video clip of him getting knocked down while sparring at Kill Cliff FC.
While Lee (20-8) still doesn’t know who’s behind posting the footage to social media, he decided to handle the situation in a selfie-style video to clear the air about what happened from his perspective.
“Alright, let me just address this once and leave it at that,” Lee began in a video posted to Instagram. “A whole lot of people been calling, and initially, I’m effective. That is martial arts training. I’ve been training martial arts for 15 years. I can’t inform you how repeatedly I’ve seen people get knocked out, submitted, arms broken, cut up – that is what we do. That is what happens into the gym.
“Whoever posted that video is a f*cking rat, a scumbag, a weasel – all of that. No honor, no respect, none of it. There’s certain codes that go on in these gyms that you simply just don’t break. Showing only a small clip like that for the world to see is considered one of them.”
“The Motown Phenom” included portions of the video to assist explain what happened just before he was caught with a hooking punch that severely wobbled him. He said he had no intention on landing a flying knee that preceded the punch, but more importantly, he didn’t even know he was being filmed.
“And second, considered one of the toughest things to learn in martial arts is self-control,” Lee said. “So, anybody who has ever trained and knows what they , can take a look at that clip and see I’m not attempting to land the knee. That was deep into the session, and I don’t think my partner was liking the way in which things was going.
“He was a little bit puffed up and pissed off, but I wasn’t attempting to land that knee. Should you take a look at it, you possibly can tell if I desired to land the knee, I might have jumped into him. As an alternative, I jumped straight up and put the knee right in front of his face. Once I landed, he threw a shot, and it’s all good. I wasn’t trippin’. This happened a minute ago. You may ask anybody; I wasn’t trippin’ on it. But what does piss me off is posting it without full context, without the complete round in there and just leaving individuals who don’t know what the f*ck they to make up their very own stories.”
Lee, 32, said he received word that the training partner within the video who’s identity has still not been confirmed publicly, has been banned from the gym after the video clip was posted to social media.
“Anybody who’s ever trained with me, or watch me train, knows my only goal in any training session is to make my training partner higher, that’s it,” Lee said. “We professionals, and that is what we do to entertain the world and supply for our family. I hold that code to the utmost respect.”
Lee was recently to the Global Fight League (GFL) roster and was drafted to Team Recent York, which is coached by Ray Longo. The 19-fight UFC veteran fought for the vacant interim lightweight title in 2017. He retired and returned to motion, most recently competing in a submission victory over Thaigo Oliveira at Lights Out Championship 17 in September.
Despite the drama surrounding the viral video, Lee says it’s going to be business as usual going forward.
“I’m not changing the way in which that I train for this reason, and I’m gonna try to keep up my integrity, though it pissed me the f*ck off, I ain’t gonna deceive you.”
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