Former ONE lightweight king Christian Lee. (Courtesy of ONE Championship)
F
ormer ONE lightweight world champion Christian “The Warrior” Lee aims to don the mantle of the No. 1 man in his division after reclaiming his Championship strap from the current holder, Ok Rae Yoon.
The pair is set to meet each other again as the headliners of ONE 160 on Aug. 26 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Lee hopes to give the judges a break in his rematch with Ok, as he aims to finish the fight as soon as the single bell sounds. As Lee noted in his interview with the South China Morning Post, he said his performance was not his best in defending his title against Ok.
“The first fight against him wasn’t really my best, but I still believe I beat him then,” he told the Hong Kong newspaper.
“The one thing that I see I was lacking in that fight was that I got tired in the latter rounds. I wasn’t really prepared for the fight, as I didn’t get the usual training camp due to COVID. This time, I plan to finish the match decisively, and if the round extends to the fourth and fifth, I’ll be ready now.”
Lee, who won the ONE world lightweight title in 2019, defended his strap twice before his South Korean rival ended his reign in a highly contested fight in September 2021.
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“The Warrior” believes that he has a good read on his opponent’s strategy coming into their second fight, and has trained to better counter this.
Lee noted that Ok liked to utilize counterstrikes and had been successful in his latest matches by implementing a strategy of letting his opponents expend their energy while trying to land a hit.
“I think for Ok, he likes to let his opponents chase him, he likes to defend the takedowns and wait until they get tired and then put on the pressure,” Lee explained.
“He would try to use flashy moves to win over the judges, which has worked for him so far, [but] I think he’s training hard to try to knock me out. But I think we’ll see the same thing from Ok and he’ll stick to that game plan.”
The Evolve and United MMA representative still believes he won the last match and has gone over the scoring criteria a number of times to reinforce the notion. Now, with the chance to snatch back his belt, “The Warrior” aims to knock out the current champ in the first round to end to their rivalry, once and for all.
Download the ONE Super App to catch the action at ONE 159: De Ridder vs. Bigdash on Friday, July 22, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
This article is published in collaboration with ONE Championship.
