The lightweight contender doesn’t just want a win at the event, but he also wants to send Iaquinta back to the preliminary card.
“He’s got some good qualities probably, but we just are two different types of people,” Lee said on The MMA Hour. “We’ve crossed paths a couple times in these last years, and we’re just two different [people]. He’s that Jersey boy that’s going to get drunk and f*ck up a hotel room, and I just don’t think there’s a — his voice shouldn’t be no bigger than it already is, so I feel like it’s my personal duty to get him up out of there and put him back on the prelims.”
Lee and Iaquinta first met at UFC 169 in February of 2014, with Iaquinta picking up a unanimous decision win on that night.
One thing that Lee would readily admit is that he is a different fighter from the first encounter back in 2014.
“I just feel like I’m a completely different fighter from that [2014 fight], and I think anybody who watches that and then goes back and watches me in my recent years, you can just tell I’m a different man than that,” Lee said. “That was the first time that I made a big jump up. I was fighting in front of country bars and I didn’t come from another organization like a Bellator or a ONE FC or whatever. I [went from fighting] like in front of 500 people to the Prudential Center, and to be honest, Al was really the first really tough guy that I fought. Everybody before then, they just didn’t give me much challenge. So it was a big learning experience for me. At the time, it was the toughest fight, but I’ve had 12 fights since then, all at a higher level. I’ve fought much tougher guys, and you’re just learning, you learn through that experience. And yeah, maybe my striking defense has gotten a whole lot better, but my offense got a lot better too, so that’s what he’s going to see on Saturday. I’m worried about that offense — I’m gonna put that on him.”
UFC On Fox 31 takes place on Saturday, December 15 from the Milwaukee Entertainment & Sports Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with Kevin Lee and Al Iaquinta headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox.
