JRE MMA Show #24 with Kevin Lee
Joe Rogan (host), Kevin Lee (guest), Guest (secondary participant, likely in-studio friend/producer) (guest)
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Kevin Lee, JRE MMA Show #24 with Kevin Lee explores kevin Lee Breaks Down Barboza Win, Weight Cuts, and Fighting Culture Kevin Lee joins Joe Rogan just days after his dominant win over Edson Barboza to dissect the fight, his evolving style, and the importance of being a well‑rounded mixed martial artist. He explains how specific training choices—like yoga, dance, and non‑traditional strength work—have transformed his balance, durability, and endurance. The conversation dives deep into weight cutting, staph infections, and the mental and physical toll of fighting at the elite level. Beyond MMA, Lee opens up about race, identity, upbringing in Detroit, and how exposure to different people and ideas reshaped his confidence and worldview.
Kevin Lee Breaks Down Barboza Win, Weight Cuts, and Fighting Culture
Kevin Lee joins Joe Rogan just days after his dominant win over Edson Barboza to dissect the fight, his evolving style, and the importance of being a well‑rounded mixed martial artist. He explains how specific training choices—like yoga, dance, and non‑traditional strength work—have transformed his balance, durability, and endurance. The conversation dives deep into weight cutting, staph infections, and the mental and physical toll of fighting at the elite level. Beyond MMA, Lee opens up about race, identity, upbringing in Detroit, and how exposure to different people and ideas reshaped his confidence and worldview.
Key Takeaways
Develop true well‑roundedness instead of relying on one base.
Lee emphasizes being able to wrestle with elite wrestlers, strike with elite strikers, and kick with top kickboxers, believing that covering all ranges and styles is the only way to thrive long‑term at lightweight.
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Use nontraditional training—yoga, ballet, salsa—to improve balance and recovery.
He credits hot yoga, vinyasa, and even dance classes for better footwork, balance, and body awareness, which he believes contributed directly to his quick recovery after Barboza’s wheel kick and overall durability.
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Prioritize joint health and functional strength over heavy lifting.
Working with a Performance Institute–style coach, Lee focuses on calisthenics, joint‑range loading, and light resistance instead of weights, aiming to be strong in every direction and reduce injury risk.
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Refine weight‑cut timing, not just pounds lost.
Lee explains that early‑morning weigh‑ins and illness threw off his usual cut schedule, arguing that many misses are timing issues and advocating for added divisions like 165/175 to reduce extreme dehydration.
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Treat losses and scares as technical and mental lessons, not excuses.
He breaks down how the Leonardo Santos KO and the Tony Ferguson staph‑fight forced him to respect opponents in all areas, listen to his coaches’ “voice of reason,” and refine his approach to camp, ego, and health.
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Controlled hard sparring with smart partners is still valuable.
Lee spars hard once a week with high‑level, trusted partners, believing that realistic reaction timing and live danger are necessary, but warns against going to war with unknown or reckless training partners.
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Exposure to different people and conversations can rewire confidence and identity.
Growing up in Detroit, Lee assumed kids from wealthier white suburbs were inherently better; college wrestling and hearing elite guests on Rogan’s podcast made him realize “we’re all the same,” which boosted his self‑belief and ambition.
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Notable Quotes
“My goal when I got into this sport was to be the most well‑rounded, complete fighter there is.”
— Kevin Lee
“I try not to be ‘fake it till you make it’—it was more like fake it till I became it.”
— Kevin Lee
“If you don’t have your health, you don’t have nothing.”
— Kevin Lee
“We’re all the same—literally all the same. We just grow up in different communities.”
— Kevin Lee
“One of the most beautiful things about MMA is all these different cultures coming together into one boiling pot.”
— Kevin Lee
Questions Answered in This Episode
How much further can Kevin Lee’s game evolve if he continues leaning into nontraditional training like dance and yoga?
Kevin Lee joins Joe Rogan just days after his dominant win over Edson Barboza to dissect the fight, his evolving style, and the importance of being a well‑rounded mixed martial artist. ...
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What structural changes (like new weight classes or weigh‑in times) would most effectively reduce dangerous weight cuts in MMA?
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How should corners and referees balance fighter safety against the chance for a late comeback in one‑sided beatings?
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In what ways does Kevin Lee’s experience growing up in Detroit reflect broader issues of representation, role models, and opportunity in combat sports?
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If Kevin Lee fought Khabib Nurmagomedov in their respective primes, which “holes” that Lee describes in Khabib’s style would actually matter in the cage?
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Transcript Preview
Boom, and we're live. Kevin Lee.
Yes, sir.
This is about as fresh off of a fight as you can get man, right?
Yeah, just about, touching down.
Two days?
Yeah, barely slept. Straight here. Yeah.
Yeah, right? It must have been a crazy... First of all, like, after a fight, it's probably, you're probably still wired and, like, can't believe it's over, right? What is it like?
Y- it takes you a minute for it to hit you, really. Uh, I didn't sleep at all after the fight. I just, I laid there for a little bit, mind kind of racing, didn't really settle down. Uh, I just ended up just getting up, getting some breakfast, and then, uh, right on the plane over here. Didn't sleep all on plane. Came over here, 3:00 AM. I've been up all morning.
But you're, what are you, like 25?
Yeah, yeah, I can keep going.
You can do that. You can keep going. (laughs)
Yeah, I can keep going. Rockstar lifestyle, baby. (laughs)
(laughs)
I gotta live it. (laughs)
25, you can do that for, like, two days in a row before it really starts to settle in.
Yeah, no, I'll be good for a minute. I mean, besides getting kicked in the head, I'm all good, other than that.
Yeah. Dude, that w- f- that was, first of all, it was a very, very, very impressive performance. I mean, Edson Barboza is no fucking joke, and notoriously difficult to take down. Even Khabib struggled getting him down the early parts of the first round, but you got him down quick.
Yeah, I think a lot of people underestimate that, uh, especially how technical m- my wrestling can get.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I've, I just feel like e- Edson was really strong. Uh, he was probably the strongest guy that I've ever faced. Physically, uh, it just, h- his body is just, it m- it moved a little bit different. But technically, I, I just had the, the aspect there and when, when you add those two things up, I'm equally as strong. You know, the, the-
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm just gonna blow him out the water.
Well, he's just a bundle of fast twitch muscle fiber, man, and that dude, I mean, people, you know, they'll see the Khabib fight and they'll see this fight with you. They might not understand how good that guy really is. He's very, very good.
He's a beast, and, uh, he's gonna come back and he's gonna knock some people out. He, he-
Oh, for sure.
He's only gonna get better from here, I think.
Yeah.
Uh, it's just, he, it's the styles make the fights too. And me, I feel like I can fight any style, you know? That, that was my number one goal when I got into this sport, just to be the most well-rounded, complete, uh, fighter that there is. And, and I feel like I can take advantage, uh, of, like, some of his, things that he's not good and good at. But he's gonna get better at 'em. He's gon- he's gonna be back. He's a beast.
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