Former lightweight contender Kevin Lee made his return to the UFC on Saturday at UFC Vegas 76, in a match-up that wasn’t doing him any favours with Rinat Fakhretdinov.
Lee’s exit from the promotion in 2021 was a surprise to say the least, and his return after just a single win (over Diego Sanchez under the Eagle FC banner) equally surprising.
The question coming into this bout was “how long will it take for Rinat to get the fight to the mat?” Initially both fighters came out trading punches with both landing a few jabs between them.
With just under 40 seconds having gone in the fight, Fakhretdinov landed a huge 1-2 straight down the middle that dropped Kevin Lee to his back. Although he dropped to the ground, he still looked as though he had his wits about him. Having said that before Lee could even react, Rinat had already locked in a guillotine choke after quickly following him to the ground. It was unclear how long Kevin Lee was unconscious for as he still had a grip of Rinat’s midsection. The referee in charge, Herb Dean, began aggressively tugging at the arm of Lee to check his limpness, and quickly stopped the fight thereafter.
In his Octagon interview, Fakhretdinov jokingly asked, “Who’s saying I have boring fights now?”
With that, Rinat Fakhretdinov made it 20 wins in a row, showing no signs of slowing down and emerging as a fresh contender in the welterweight division.
Official Result: Rinat Fakhretdinov def. Kevin Lee by submission (guillotine choke), Round 1, 0:55
