In 2018, the stacked lightweight division gained a new challenger for the newly crowned lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, as Kevin Lee would TKO Edson Barboza to gain entry into the top five.
On the 21st April 2018, seven years ago, Kevin Lee would put himself into a very similar position to Paddy Pimblett now, as the surging young contender in the lightweight division.
Lee would dominate Barboza, winning the first four rounds on the judges’ scorecards and overpowering him with his grappling.
Lee would also show his ability to take heavy strikes, taking an infamous Barboza spinning back kick to the head, which would knock down most lightweights, but somehow Lee stayed up and was forced to shoot.
The fight would be stopped by a doctor stoppage in the fifth and final round due to a cut on Barboza’s eyelid he sustained from a heavy elbow from the ground.
This would be Lee’s first fight since losing the interim title shot to Tony Ferguson, demonstrating his ability to bounce back from a loss and keep his dream fight of facing Khabib alive.
However, instead of continuing his winning streak and getting that title fight, he would lose four of his next five, with even a change in weight class unable to change his fortunes.
Kevin Lee now resides in the PFL, hoping for a career revival; however, with the cancellation of the first two PFL events, Lee’s redemption arc has been put on hold.
Edson Barboza has had 11 fights since, becoming a UFC veteran and a featherweight gatekeeper winning five of them bouts.
In the co-main event Frankie Edgar would get his last ever featherweight win against Cub Swanson, winning by unanimous decision.
He would then lose to Max Holloway in a featherweight title fight before moving to bantamweight.
Two future bantamweight champions would also earn a victory on this card wuth Merab Dvalishvili getting one of his few TKO wins versus Ricky Simon and Aljamian Sterling beating Brett Johns by decision.
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