Kevin Lee is one of the most talented lightweights in the UFC and has no shortage of opinions outside the cage.

This weekend, the sixth-ranked Lee is in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Atlantic City against fifth-ranked Edson Barboza.

During an interview Thursday on The TSN MMA Show, Lee was presented with a list of topics for him to give his unique and unfiltered perspective on.

 

Dustin Poirier’s victory over Justin Gaethje:

“It was a fun fight. They did exactly what the fans expected them to. Gaethje put his brain on the line, but is Poirier really championship-level material? I don’t know. I don’t think he really answered a lot of questions that people have about the top of this division. He’s in a different category. He’s in that have-a-fun-fight type of category. It was a good fight for the fans. It was good overall, but I wasn’t too impressed by it.”

Who is getting the next lightweight title shot?

“I’m taking that. I’m going to get in where I fit in. I’m going to squeeze in there. I think the X-factor is Conor McGregor. He’s kind of sitting on the outside. You don’t know when he’s coming back. He’s wanted to do November, September, but either way I think he’s avoiding that fight like the plague. He’s avoiding all of the fights against us top dogs. But I’ve been calling out Khabib for many, many years now and after I beat Barboza worse than he did it will be the rightful fight to make.”

How will he get the fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov?

“Half of this battle is going to be convincing the man to fight. That man don’t want to fight nobody. He wants to hang onto that imaginary 0 [undefeated record]. I feel like he has to fight the top of this division if he wants to walk around calling himself the champ. One fifty-five has been a little confusing these last couple years. I feel like I’m taking some responsibility for that. If I would have showed up healthy against Tony Ferguson last October, that weekend in Brooklyn would have looked totally different. But I’ll right all of those wrongs in the last year or so. Khabib, I’ll get him to fight one way or another, but he wants to hang onto that 0 and I’m going to be the one who takes it.”

The Conor McGregor incident in Brooklyn:

“That whole thing was all laughable, it’s a joke. I don’t really understand it. The guy wants to be a gangster and all this. He might have grown up poor, but he didn’t really grow up in the streets. If he really wanted to fight Khabib, all he had to do was sign the line. He’s another one of these dudes – these guys don’t want really challenges, they don’t want real fights and I’m here to restore some order to this division.”

Eddie Alvarez:

“Eddie’s washed up. Eddie knows it. The Eddie fight interests me in the long run because I think it would be a fun fight. It’s easy money. I never turn down easy money, so that Eddie fight is still there to be had. I’ve got a lot of options in this game and Eddie is one of them. Eddie’s like a tune-up fight. He’s one of the names that was offered on this one, but I chose the bigger challenge in Edson Barboza. Eddie’s sitting out. He couldn’t even take the fight versus Khabib because he said he was too fat. What kind of [expletive] is that? We’re supposed to be professionals here and he’s walking around enjoying the spaghetti I guess”

Nate Diaz:

“Nate’s been washed up for a while. He lucked out. He had his payday; he had his little moment in the sun. The Diaz brothers, both of them, they did a great job convincing the fans somehow that they’re real fighters when neither one of them really want to fight and they’ve shown it time and time again. I’m not a bully. I called out Nate when he was talking about trying to come back and fight. I told him to shut the [expletive] up and go back to riding bikes in the park and then that’s what he posted on his Instagram. So I’ll take it. I got my way and he’s sitting back and I’m doing the real work.”

Al Iaquinta moving up in the rankings despite loss to Nurmagomedov:

“It’s probably warranted. He took that fight, he looked decent. He did what I thought he was going to do: He showed the holes in Khabib’s game. I didn’t think he stood a chance of winning – I don’t think many people did, it was just too much to ask for. I think Al’s definitely a better fighter than people give him credit for, it’s just that he doesn’t know it. He’s sitting on the side and he’s been selling homes for the last two years. He hasn’t even been a pro fighter”

Is Frankie Edgar returning to the octagon too soon after his knockout loss in February?

“Yeah and that’s speaking as a Frankie fan. I’m glad that he’s here. I’m glad that he’s on the card; the folks are going to go crazy for him. If you’re asking me from a fan perspective and as a fan of him, I would have liked to see a little more time, especially coming off his first big knockout loss like that. Frankie’s taken a lot of damage over his career and he’s got a long life after this, so I think the body should come first.”

How he sees his fight with Barboza playing out:

“The fight’s going to be explosive. You’ve got the two best athletes in the division going against each other. I think whoever is going to edge out that mental game is going to be the winner and that’s what I’m going to show. Once my mental side catches up against the physical, there’s not a man in this division that can stop me, and Barboza is the best man to show that against. The fight’s going to be exciting. He’s going to be trying to take my head off and I’m going to be trying to take his off and I’m going to take whatever he gives me.”