The best and worst from UFC 229: Khabib vs. McGregor

#3 Worst: Nik Lentz gets political post-fight

Nik Lentz got needlessly political following his win over Gray Maynard

It’s never a good look when a fighter decides to get political in their post-match interview – a few years back a fighter named Jacob Volkmann was notorious for his constant jabs at then-US President Barack Obama – as the two realms just shouldn’t ever meet, really – it just makes things needlessly awkward. Last night we saw another painful example of that.

Undercard fighter Nik Lentz – controversial back in 2010/11 for a string of dull victories that had fans changing the channel – impressively defeated former title challenger Gray Maynard on the Fight Pass portion of the show, finishing him with a head kick. And then he decided to give a “shout out” to his buddy Brett Kavanaugh.

For those not privy to US politics, Kavanaugh was elected to the Supreme Court this week – but this election followed accusations of some serious sexual assaults.

Whether he’s guilty or not isn’t up to MMA fans to decide, but why would Lentz use his post-fight promo to express support to a guy who has that kind of thing hanging over him?

It’s not the same as when the likes of Colby Covington and Derrick Lewis mention President Trump in their interviews because the mentions were clearly tongue-in-cheek, and Lentz seemed to be serious and appeared to be trying to rile up the crowd.

It’s a behaviour which just doesn’t belong in the UFC, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t handed a mic post-fight again any time soon.