‘No regrets’
“No regrets. I wish the Iaquinta fights had gone a little differently. I wish I could’ve fought him like five or seven times. I wish the UFC let you keep fighting the same guys over and over,” Kevin Lee said to Submission Radio. “Regrets, no. Even if this is it for good, the history is already written. At one point I was one of the most popular fighters in the UFC. So, those years are already done, regardless. I can always look back and be proud, I don’t have any regrets about anything. I wouldn’t do anything different, to be honest with you. I’d do it all over and all the same.
“I just wish I was smarter, especially in fights like the Tony Ferguson fight. I feel like that fight cost me a lot, it cost me my head coach, which really changed the trajectory of my career,” Kevin Lee continued. “It obviously cost me the world title, it cost me a fight against Conor McGregor which would’ve changed a lot of things financially. So, if there is any fights that I wish had gone different is the Tony Ferguson fight. But, I don’t have any regrets, no. I learned a lot, especially from that one.”
After the loss to Tony Ferguson, Kevin Lee then went 2-4 over his next six fights and was released from the UFC. Yet, after one fight in Eagle FC, he returned to the UFC but lost in 55 seconds to Rinat Fakhretdinov. Following that loss, Lee announced his retirement from MMA.