Kevin Lee has given his honest opinion about the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter.

While speaking with reporters recently, the UFC star made his feelings known about Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje being the coaches for TUF 26.

He was disappointed that they were chosen as the coaches because he felt that he should have been a coach on the reality show, which airs on FOX Sports 1.

“I think if you even ask anybody in the UFC, and they say (me vs. Gaethje) is the better fight to make,” Lee told MMAjunkie. “That’s the better TV. If they really wanted to push ‘TUF,’ I think that would’ve been the better option, and I think if you ask anybody in the know, they would’ve said the same thing.

“You’ve got Eddie, and you’ve got Gathje, who are both brain dead. They’re going to go in there, they’re going to talk, and they’re going to slur some words at each other. Nobody is going to watch it. It’s going to be terrible. I feel sorry for the women on the show, because they’re not going to get as many eyeballs.”

The show, which is set to debut on August 30th, will feature the debut of women’s flyweights, with the show’s finale crowning a new “TUF” champion and the inaugural women’s 125-pound champ.
Lee claims that he pushed to be on the show against Gaethje, but Alvarez got the nod instead. This is a big deal for Gaethje as he is coming off an awesome fight against Michael Johnson in which he won this month.

“Johnson, to me, he’s a journeyman. He’s always been a journeyman. And apparently beating Michael Johnson really means something in this game. You had Khabib (Nurmagomedov) that beat him, and people think he’s the No. 1 contender for beating Michael Johnson. To me, Mike’s a journeyman. What else can you say? I think he quit in the first minute of the first round. You see it in his eyes.

“You see in the first round (that) he quits, and he’s still able to hurt Gaethje. He’s still able to hurt him just off his skill and just off them back-the-(expletive)-up-off-me punches. You look at Gaethje’s skill, he’s basic. He’s hitable. He likes to be hit. I want to see how many punches he can take against a dangerous fighter.”

Lee obviously would want to be known as a dangerous fighter and thinks he could be against Gaethje. He explained why he thought he and Gaethje as coaches made more sense for Gaethje.

“If Gaethje beats me, you say, ‘Oh, he beats a smart fighter,'” Lee said. “… If he knocks Eddie out in the first round, the story line will be that Eddie’s done. The story line won’t be that Gaethje’s a great fighter.”