UFC Rochester: Dos Anjos vs. Lee Preview
A preview of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card, set to take place in Rochester, N.Y.
Updated: May 15, 2018 • 11:05 PM ET
Kevin Lee is looking to rebound from a loss in his last fight.
UFC Fight Night 152 will be in Rochester, N.Y. this Saturday, featuring a welterweight fight between No. 3 ranked Rafael dos Anjos and No. 7 Kevin Lee.
Fighting in Blue Cross Arena this weekend, Dos Anjos will try to rebound from two straight losses. The first of the two losses came to No. 2 ranked Colby Covington last June, while the most recent defeat came to current welterweight champion Kamaru Usman in November. The losses followed an impressive three-fight winning streak after the 34-year-old former lightweight champion moved up to 170 pounds.
During that winning streak, Dos Anjos defeated Tarec Saffiedine, Neil Magny and former champion Robbie Lawler before losing to Covington and Usman.
Aside his wins at welterweight, the Brazilian has key victories over Donald Cerrone (twice), Anthony Pettis, Nate Diaz and Benson Henderson.
Toward the end of his run at lightweight, Dos Anjos had a difficult time making 155 pounds and has looked much more comfortable at 170. He has had trouble against bigger 170-pound fighters, but he and Lee are closer to the same size and would be natural 165-pounders, a division many fighters have wanted the UFC to add.
Lee is 2-2 in his last four fights with losses to Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title and most recently to Al Iaquinta in December. He collected his biggest UFC victory over Edson Barboza last April, but a win over Dos Anjos would be the marquee win he needs to make a statement in a new division. Lee, like Dos Anjos, has had trouble making 155 pounds lately.
The 26-year-old wants to give the former champion a true fight on Saturday.
“Nobody has ever really stopped him, and nobody has ever seriously hurt him,” Lee (17-4) said via MMA Junkie. “So that’s something I’m going to push for. At the end of the day, I’m going to get back to me. I’m going to get back to my natural fighting style. I’m going to push forward, I’m not going to take a step back. Put my chin down.
“I’m going to throw some hands, and we’ll see what he do and how he’s going to counteract that.”
The rest of the main card on ESPN+
Welterweight bout - Derrick Krantz vs. No. 15 Vicente Luque
Women's bantamweight bout - No. 6 Aspen Ladd vs. No. 2 Sijara Eubanks
Middleweight bout - No. 12 Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Ian Heinisch
Lightweight bout - No. 15 Charles Oliveira vs. Nik Lentz
Lightweight bout - Davi Ramos vs. Austin Hubbard
ESPN+ Prelims
Women's featherweight bout - Megan Anderson vs. Felicia Spencer
Featherweight bout - Michael Trizano vs. Grant Dawson
Lightweight bout - Desmond Green vs. Charles Jourdain
Light heavyweight bout - Patrick Cummins vs. Ed Herman
Welterweight bout - Danny Roberts vs. Michel Pereira
Middleweight bout - Zak Cummings vs. Trevin Giles
Featherweight bout - Julio Arce vs. Julian Erosa
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