NSAC claims Lee was cleared to fight at UFC 216 despite staph infection

A staph infection wasn't enough to keep Kevin Lee from the Octagon at UFC 216.

Despite showing up for his interim lightweight title bout against Tony Ferguson in Las Vegas with evidence of the infection on his chest, Lee was medically cleared to fight by a pair of Nevada State Athletic Commission physicians, according to executive director Bob Bennett.

"My lead ringside physician found Lee medically fit to fight," Bennett told MMA Fighting's Marc Raimondi on Sunday. "He was examined by our lead ringside physician, along with another ringside physician. Both felt he was medically fit to fight."

The ailment was one of two obstacles Lee had to overcome to make his first UFC title bout, the first being a rough 20-pound cut to the lightweight limit he needed an extra hour to make on Friday. After initially tipping the scales at a pound over, the commission medically cleared him to continue cutting weight to make 155 pounds for the next hour.

Speaking with the media following his third-round submission loss to Ferguson, Lee claimed he'd tried to keep the staph infection from the commission during fight week and admitted the strenuous cut played a role in the losing effort.

"I tried my best to hide it," Lee said. "You know, it’s a big event, a lot has been happening with the UFC, these last couple events and I wasn’t going to let nobody down. I worked my whole life for this, it was like a culmination of things. But I’m not going to let this stop me.

"It was what it was. I was going to make the weight, even if I had to cut my foot off or something. I said it before, it damn near killed me and I had to do what I had to do. I had a job to do, I’m a professional and I’m going to come out here no matter how bad it hurts. I’m going to come out here and I feel like I put my best performance on tonight, but by the third round it was too much for me."

The 25-year-old - who walks around at 30 pounds north of the lightweight limit - openly entertained moving up in weight to minimize the toll on his body following Saturday's defeat.