UFC Fight Night 99's Kevin Lee wishes he'd known Conor McGregor was watching

BELFAST – Kevin Lee had no idea UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor was in the building for Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 99 victory over Magomed Mustafaev.

But if he did, you know he would have had something to say.

“I would have jumped the cage – damn,” Lee (14-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) said backstage after earning a submission victory over Mustafaev (13-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) via rear-naked choke on UFC Fight Pass at SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. “All Irish guys look alike. I wish I would have known. Somebody could have told me. They’re all just red beards and bald heads to me.”

The 7,000 or so Irish fans in the building might disagree with that statement, but Lee is never one to sugarcoat his opinions. He basically called out the entire lightweight division after his win. McGregor wasn’t yet cageside to watch his teammate Artem Lobov, so Lee didn’t have the ear of the champ.

But the Irishman is now Lee’s target after McGregor won the 155-pound title earlier this month at UFC 205, so fans will be hearing a lot more from him.

“He’s the champ of this division now,” Lee said. “I said it a while ago – I’ll be the champ. He’s 28. I’m 24. He ain’t got nothing on me but some years.”

Lee has now won three straight in the octagon and is 7-2 overall in the promotion. Thus far, he’s light on marquee names and is unranked in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings. But there’s no one more willing to call his shot.

“I think after his last fight, (McGregor) said you’ve got to have some height, some reach, some weight – I’m 195 pounds outside of fighting – 77-inch reach, 5-10, a hell of a wrestler, so this fight was about showcasing that I’m the best wrestler in this division,” Lee said.

Since McGregor took the UFC by storm, critics have predicted a strong grappler would bring him back to earth. A submission loss to Nate Diaz at welterweight provided plenty of ammunition for naysayers. But he then bounced back to outpoint Diaz in the rematch and then won the lightweight belt by hurting Eddie Alvarez with punches before he was forced to hit the mat.

Lee thinks McGregor wouldn’t be able to escape if they got in the cage.

“Everybody thinks that Khabib (Nurmagomedov) is the best wrestler, but this is good old-fashioned American wrestling,” he said. “This ain’t that sambo (expletive). If you want to go out there, me and Khabib, no punches thrown, I’ll (technical fall) him, 15-0. I’ll keep taking him down, and he won’t do a damn thing about it.”

To many, Nurmagomedov is the rightful challenger to the lightweight belt, and the Dagestan fighter has put the UFC on blast to book the fight.

Good luck to Lee if he wants to get in between the two rivals. First, he has to get an audience with McGregor. After Lobov (12-12-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) scored an upset of Teruto Ishihara (9-3-2 MMA, 2-1-1 UFC), McGregor was gone in a flash.

For more on UFC Fight Night 99, check out the UFC Events section of MMAjunkie.