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Vaughan Lee

Vaughan Lee says his Irish foe Paddy Holahan has made a big mistake by underestimating him ahead of their UFC Glasgow battle on Saturday, July 18 at the SSE Hydro.

The flyweight, 32, reckons Holahan will be in a world of trouble once the action hits the ground.

“He probably thinks I’m just a striker,” said Lee. “He’s confident on the ground but I’m not scared of him. I don’t think he has any threat for me.

“It would be nice to get a submission as it’s been a while since I’ve had a finish. He’s tough though. He’s tricky on the feet and has a good ground game.”

The Birmingham man has spent over a year on the sidelines since breaking an orbital bone in March 2014 when he was knocked out by Iuri Alcantara.

“As I went down Alcantara hit me again like four times and completely smashed the orbital bone. I had an eye operation so I couldn’t do much in terms of sparring or training. I had to have a plate inserted into my eye so it was pretty nasty.

“In the meantime I’ve just been chilling at home, playing with my daughter. I’ve been all over Thailand training at Phuket Top Team with guys like Thiago Tavares, Ian Entwistle and Chris Fishgold. The Thai guys are great too so it’s an amazing experience.

“I used to train at UTC in Birmingham but since then I’ve moved on. I do my own thing and train whenever I want and this furthers my knowledge of all martial arts.”

Many fight fans have also speculated on Lee taking a rematch with Brad Pickett, who was knocked out via a flying knee by Thomas Almeida at UFC 189.

Does Lee see a chance to avenge his 2007 defeat to “One Punch”? “No, we’re friends and we train together a lot now. We don’t talk about our fight much although he does like to bring it up sometimes!”

By Alistair Hendrie