Kevin Lee joins Sanford MMA in South Florida: ‘It was time for me to make a change’

Kevin Lee joins Sanford MMA in South Florida: ‘It was time for me to make a change’

MIAMI – Kevin Lee is undergoing some big career changes.

“The Motown Phenom” is changing things up across the board. Lee (18-7) no longer is with the UFC after he was released in 2021. He’s now contracted to Khabib Nurmagomedov’s Eagle FC.

Lee also is starting a new phase competing in a new weight class. He fluctuated between lightweight and welterweight in the UFC. Now he will fight at super lightweight (165 pounds). He kicks off his start in the new division against Diego Sanchez on March 11 at Eagle FC 46.

But the changes don’t stop there. Lee recently said he’s moved from Las Vegas to South Florida to switch training camps to Sanford MMA.

“It’s been crazy – a crazy bunch of events,, how life works,” Lee told MMA Junkie. “I was already kind of looking at Florida to get out of Las Vegas. It was time for me to make a change in my life and kind of start over.

“I feel like now I’m getting that fresh start that I really need: New promotion, new team, new place to live, new training environment. Even though it was hard to leave Las Vegas and leaving all my training partners and coaches that I’ve grown over the years with, this is a new exciting part of my life to start.”

Lee was training at Xtreme Couture and did some training at Tristar Gym in Montreal, as well, toward the end of his UFC run. Sanford MMA is run by head coach Henri Hooft and features notable names like Gilbert Burns, Vicente Luque and Robbie Lawler.

From early into his fighting career, Lee was labeled by many fans and pundits as a future UFC champion. Although he did reach top title contention in the UFC and fought Tony Ferguson for an interim lightweight title, the 29-year-old now finds himself 1-4 in his past five bouts.

Lee is confident the move to 165 pounds, along with the other career changes, will have a major impact on his future and his ability to reach his full potential. It wasn’t easy to leave Las Vegas and his team behind, but it was a much needed change for Lee.

“It’s challenging whenever you have to say goodbye to certain people,” Lee said. “There’s some people I’m always going to stick with. Dewey Cooper is always going to be in my corner. And as far as my core team, it will still be together. This is 2022. We can talk over the phone, we can FaceTime and all these other avenues.

“But not to see them on a day-to-day basis, it’s hard on both ends of it. But I’ve always picked the right people around me and the people who always want the best for me in my life. They knew it was time, they want to see me do better.”