Kevin Lee Not Impressed With Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje Coaching TUF 26

Kevin Lee spoke with MMAjunkie about the announcement earlier this week that Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje will be the coaches for TUF 26. The highlights are below:

On believing he’s a better option than Alvarez: “I think if you even ask anybody in the UFC, and they say (me vs. Gaethje) is the better fight to make. That’s the better TV. If they really wanted to push ‘TUF,’ I think that would’ve been the better option, and I think if you ask anybody in the know, they would’ve said the same thing. You’ve got Eddie, and you’ve got Gathje, who are both brain dead. They’re going to go in there, they’re going to talk, and they’re going to slur some words at each other. Nobody is going to watch it. It’s going to be terrible. I feel sorry for the women on the show, because they’re not going to get as many eyeballs.”

On Gaethje’s debut UFC performance being praised as a Fight of the Year candidate: “Oh, as the ‘Fight of the Year?’ Okay. [scoffs] Johnson, to me, he’s a journeyman. He’s always been a journeyman. And apparently beating Michael Johnson really means something in this game. You had Khabib (Nurmagomedov) that beat him, and people think he’s the No. 1 contender for beating Michael Johnson. To me, Mike’s a journeyman. What else can you say? I think he quit in the first minute of the first round. You see it in his eyes…You see in the first round (that) he quits, and he’s still able to hurt Gaethje. He’s still able to hurt him just off his skill and just off them back-the-(expletive)-up-off-me punches. You look at Gaethje’s skill, he’s basic. He’s hitable. He likes to be hit. I want to see how many punches he can take against a dangerous fighter.”

On wanting to face Gaethje: “If Gaethje beats me, you say, ‘Oh, he beats a smart fighter’…If he knocks Eddie out in the first round, the story line will be that Eddie’s done. The story line won’t be that Gaethje’s a great fighter.”