The world of MMA has often seen its stars taking up other professions after their time in the cage. While some choose to move to switch between different fight promotions, others also make their way toward something completely different. Retired MMA fighters like Ronda Rousey, changed their discipline of martial arts and moved onto a completely different promotion. Some others, like Chael Sonnen, successfully paved their journey into the broadcasting industry via YouTube.
The former Bellator MMA fighter, Keith Lee, also made his way successfully into the world of broadcasting himself via TikTok. Lee chose the subject of food and started off by making videos of food and giving reviews about them. In a recent interview with MMA fighting, Lee described his entire journey from his exit from Bellator to becoming a noted food critic boasting humongous 7M followers on TikTok.
Keith Lee kept going despite facing some initial difficulties
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Lee stated how he felt, “very expendable” after his exit from Bellator. He promised himself to “build something that no one can take away” from him. Lee was a sufferer of social anxiety and faced problems while presenting himself before the camera during MMA interviews. He stated that he started doing TikTok to “get more comfortable with doing interviews for MMA”.
‘Killa’s’ initial videos were mostly about his family. He also admitted to getting nervous and shaking in his initial stages of video making. He eventually shifted to making cooking videos. But, the food reviewing chapter started when his pregnant wife was having some “crazy” foodstuff which he recorded and put on his TikTok.
Lee received a call from the famous YouTube channel ‘Man vs Food’ which made him contemplate about the content he was posting. He thought, “I would watch somebody do food reviews all day. So let me start doing food reviews.”
He followed a particular style that involved him describing the source of ingredients, the cost of the dishes he ate and he also gave the dishes an overall rating from 1 to 10 at the end. This style of ‘Killa’ started attracting more audiences to his videos.
The 303 Food Truck review catapulted Keith Lee to the top, helping business owners as well
It was Lee’s ‘303 Food Truck’ review, which caused his meteoric rise as a food critic. Talking about that particular video, ‘Killa’ stated, “I tried it and that video within the first 24 hours was at like 6 million views”. Lee also received a call from the owner of 303 Food Truck, who informed him that the place had got overcrowded with customers.
He also stated how his reviews had helped the restaurant and business owners, boosting their sales by insane numbers. Lee stated, “From that video on, I’ve had five businesses sell over $50,000 in product in less than 12 hours just from a review”.
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Lee often chooses to be anonymous during his visit to restaurants for a review. The restaurant owners often find out the whole story after witnessing the boost in their sales. ‘Killa’ still doesn’t realize his own influence sometimes. He stated that he often thinks, “I don’t fully understand grasp what’s going on all the time. I’m just making videos. I’m just a guy with a camera.”
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Lee finally revealed his current experience stating, “My life has changed. I’m in a different bracket that I ever was with fighting. It’s surreal. It hasn’t really hit me yet, but to say the least, I can make a living off of it.”
The Bellator Fighter also stated that he had plans to step back into the cage but didn’t specify any time frame.