“I took a look around at the division and my main thing after my last performance was to just go out there and fight again,” said Lee, believes he hasn’t fought to his full potential in recent outings. “So when they approached me with this fight with Dos Anjos, who I know is going to show up and show up prepared and is going to give me a great fight, that excited me.
“Dos Anjos is ranked in the Top 5 at welterweight and when I look at that division and what Kamaru Usman did to Tyron Woodley — he might not have the name recognition that somebody like Khabib (Nurmagomedov) has, but when you look at his skills, he’s a little bit more well rounded, a little bit bigger and he presents a bigger challenge to me,” continued Lee, who has never been shy about looking one or two steps down the road and using those potential matchups as motivation. “Switching gears and going after somebody like that adds fuel to the fire, but we’ll talk about the future after this because Dos Anjos is getting my full attention.”
In many ways, Saturday night’s main event pairing with Dos Anjos at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester is the start of a new chapter in Lee’s UFC career.
Chapter One began and ended with losses to Iaquinta, but featured a great deal of growth and development; the ebbs and flows of a career competing at the highest level and flashes of brilliance that give you reason to believe the best is yet to come.
Chapter Two begins on Saturday and Lee is looking forward to crafting the kind of performance he’s longed to deliver inside the Octagon, collecting a big win and giving himself plenty of options to consider in the second half of the year.
“One of the things that excite me about this weekend is to go out there and try my best to out-perform myself and make myself proud,” he said. “I just want to go back to being me and having fun out there. I’m expecting a great fight.
“He’s going to come forward, he’s going to stay in my face, which is going to play right into my game because that’s my natural fighting style. We’re going to get into each other’s faces. I think it’s going to be a blood bath.
“We’ll talk about the future after this,” he added. “Dos Anjos is getting my full attention and (when I’m done), we’ll see what else is out there because there are a bunch of great fights out there to be had.”
