Kevin Lee had an opportunity to make the jump up to the welterweight division and immediately fight a top contender. He wasn’t into it, though, and decided to turn the fight down.

Lee (17-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC) said he was offered a main event spot against Darren Till (17-1-1 MMA, 5-1-1 UFC) at UFC on ESPN+ 5 in London on March 16. “The Motown Phenom” is one of the biggest lightweights on the UFC roster and has long clamored for the UFC to introduce a 165-pound division. Welterweight could be as close as he gets, but he’s not ready for that move.

It wasn’t long after Lee’s decision loss to Al Iaquinta at UFC on FOX 31 in December that the UFC apparently approached him about facing former 170-pound title challenger Till, but he felt it wasn’t the right move.

“They offered me Darren Till for that main event spot in London and I think they trying to push me out the division,” Lee told MMAjunkie Radio. “They pretty much approached me right after the fight and they asked me would I go 170. I’m like, ‘Not really (interested). This is where I started, this is where I’m going to get that belt first and just keep moving on. I just wasn’t interested. I’m going to stay at 155 and someone is going to get hurt.”

Lee, No. 5 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings, sad he briefly considered fighting No. 5-ranked welterweight Till on British soil. However, after thinking of all the pros and cons, he came to the same conclusion.

“I slept on it for the night then I woke up in the morning and it was the same thing,” Lee said. “I try not to make decisions on the fly like that. It just still wasn’t too interesting. There’s still so much work for me to be done at 155.”

With Till now booked to fight Jorge Masvidal at UFC on ESPN+ 5, Lee is looking at the shape of the 155-pound class to find his next foe. With two losses in his past three fights, Lee said he knows he’s not in a position to make massive demands about his next opponent.

At this point, Lee said he’s ready to accept anything, and he named undefeated rising contender Gregor Gillespie (13-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) as a potential opponent after “The Gift” beat Yancy Medeiros at UFC on ESPN+ 1 this month.

“There’s the Gregor Gillespie kid who looked real good,” Lee said. “He ain’t going to spend no time calling nobody out. I’m trying to get in touch with his people while he out in the woods. I was impressed with that last fight and that’s definitely a fight I’m looking at now. I would be giving him a shot and coming up. I’ve already put my offer out there I’m just waiting to hear back. The kid can fight. He’s undefeated. I really wasn’t too impressed with him, but hat last fight versus Yancy, he did all right. I think I might go ahead and get that done, it’s just on him whether he want to have it or not.”

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