What's new at Ludus Martial Arts

We’re so proud of our team! Find out how they’ve been doing, as well as what else has been going on at our gym lately.

Kevin Lee hates giving ‘cokehead’ Conor McGregor more press, but ‘he’s not a real gangster’

LAS VEGAS – Kevin Lee unsurprisingly has thoughts on Conor McGregor’s alleged bus attack, even if he’s somewhat reluctant to share them.

Lee (16-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC), a UFC lightweight who meets Edson Barboza (19-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 128 main event later this month, typically has an opinion on just about everything. The takes have poured in since McGregor’s (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) now-infamous rampage on UFC 223 fighters in Brooklyn last week, which led to the “his arrest and being chrged with assault.

“The Motown Phenom” was asked about the situation during a media scrum today in Las Vegas, which MMAjunkie attended at the UFC Performance Institute. In his first answer on the subject, he made it clear he doesn’t have the desire to give more attention, because McGregor already has more than enough of it.

“I think you do have to blame some of the media for blowing the dude’s head up, and he just feel like his (expletive) don’t stink,” Lee told MMAjunkie. “I think a lot of what you see is frustration. I think he knows he ain’t been the champ for a while. He don’t know what else to do. He’s acting like a child. It’s retarded. I ain’t going to give that cokehead too much press.”

The entire situation involving McGregor stemmed from an incident early in UFC 223 fight week. Headliner Khabib Nurmagomedov (26-0 MMA, 10-0 UFC) confronted undercard fighter Artem Lobov about statements he’d made in interviews, and a slap allegedly occurred. Considering Lobov is one of McGregor’s good friends and training partners at SBG Ireland, “The Notorious” decided to plot a retaliation.

McGregor flew to New York, where UFC 223 was being held, and following media day managed to enter the Barclays Center with a large group of cohorts. That’s where the alleged attack went down. McGregor is caught on tape throwing a dolly into the window of a bus, which was transporting multiple fighters, including Nurmagomedov. UFC 223 competitors Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg suffered injuries and were forced to withdraw from their scheduled fights.

According to UFC President Dana White, McGregor believes retaliation “had to be done” after the incident with Nurmagomedov and Lobov. However, Lee said he’s not buying it.

“That’s just the fight game,” Lee said. “What Khabib did I didn’t feel was disrespectful. I didn’t see nothing out of line. And if it was out of line that’s not the way to go about it. I think Conor, he wants to be this gangster, he wants to be this thug, but he ain’t really from there. If it’s me, I got in this game to get away from that, to get away from having to do (expletive) like it. It seems like he is trying to get there and then he’s going back to where I came from it. It’s backwards to me. It don’t really make sense.

“You can tell the man don’t know what he’s doing, because when you have that type of money, you ain’t supposed to throw (expletive). You supposed to be out somewhere holding up a newspaper in front of cameras: ‘I ain’t nowhere near the scene. But somebody will get touched.’ That whole situation is laughable. It’s laughable to someone like me, and I hate giving it press really.”

Aside from the fact McGregor is the former champion of the weight class in which Lee competes, he also had a tie to the situation with former opponent Chiesa, who was forced to pull out of his scheduled fight with Anthony Pettis after suffering cuts from shattered glass.

Lee submitted Chiesa at UFC Fight Night 112 in June. But even though they’ve had plenty of animosity (and have even got physical outside the cage themselves), Lee said there’s no joy in seeing an innocent bystander like Chiesa lose an opportunity.

“I feel bad for the dude,” Lee said. “I really do. I wish it had been me on that bus. We would have caused a riot in that (expletive). There ain’t no way they would have held me on that bus. I feel bad for a guy like Mike. Mike don’t want to hurt a fly. He should stop showing up for media stuff. He just keep getting hit in the head. If I was the UFC, I would just stop scheduling the dude to do media. It ain’t working out too good for him.”

In his parting thoughts on McGregor’s latest drama, Lee sent out a warning. McGregor’s rise to the top of the sport was quick and impressive, but since his August boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, it seems as though life has begun to unwind. Lee said he sincerely hopes McGregor can get everything in order after his latest mishap, because ultimately he wants to share the octagon with the biggest star in the sport.

“It’s dangerous to start drinking that Kool-Aid in all senses of it,” Lee said. “In the fight sense, I think the man knows he’s not the real champ. He doesn’t stack up well against us big three. You’ve got Khabib, you’ve got Tony (Ferguson), and you’ve got me. He’s going to lose to all three of us. So there’s that frustration. Then the man, he’s not a real gangster. Yeah, he might have grew up poor, but they working class. They ain’t really street people. He want to be from the streets so bad, that’s dangerous. It’s dangerous to play around with that. I know it just cause I’ve seen it, and I know people that are real in it. You play around with them folks, you can’t do that for too long. They don’t give a (expletive) about your money. I know a lot of dudes that don’t.

“We’ll see how it shakes out. I wish him nothing but the best. I hope nothing bad on the man. I wish him the best. I wish he can turn it around, and I’m looking to make some money with him. There’s some fights to be made.”

UFC Fight Night 128 takes place April 21 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. N.J. Lee vs. Barboza headlines the FS1-televised card following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

For more on UFC Fight Night 128, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

Drakkar Klose Is Tuning Out The Noise

Divisional Stalwart Is Determined To Continue His Current Winning Streak And Make It Four In A Row By Defeating Joaquim Silva At UFC 301. Read the Full Article Here

Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol postponed due to injury

  • By Ludus MMA
  • Category:
  • Posted: May 4, 2024

The fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed 175-pound championship, scheduled for June 1 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has been postponed after Beterbiev injured his knee in training. The IBF, WBC and WBO titleholder ruptured his meniscus, Top Rank announced in a news release. The promotional...

come and try a ludus mma class free!

We want to make sure that Ludus MMA is the right fit for you before asking you to commit to a membership.
That’s why we’d like to offer you a FREE ONE-DAY PASS to our gym.

With your FREE PASS, you can:

  • Try as many classes as you’d like,
  • Explore the facility
  • Talk to our coaches one-on-one about what you can expect as a member

© Copyright 2024 - Ludus Martial Arts - 730 Beach Blvd, Unit 105, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250.

(904) 374-4186 / ludusmartialarts@gmail.com