When Christian Lee steps into the cage this weekend to take on Kiamrian Abbasov for the ONE welterweight world title, he will be completing a metamorphosis which has seen him mature from a 17-year-old debutant, to \u2018The Warrior\u2019 he is today.
\nGo back seven years and you will find a featherweight Lee, making his first appearance in ONE – what we\u2019ve seen since has been a remarkable journey of highs and lows which can peak on Saturday with the chance to hold titles at two weights simultaneously.\u00a0
\nLee (16-4), was never able to capture the featherweight gold, but when moved up to lightweight was able to in his very first fight – a stunning second round stoppage of Shinya Aoki at ONE Championship: Enter the Dragon in 2019. We went on to win the Lightweight Grand Prix and defend his title on two occasions – both with early first round stoppages.\u00a0
\nHis rapid progress was somewhat halted when dropping the title to Ok Rae Yoon via decision last year, but responded in the best possible way by immediately reclaiming the gold in August – this time he didn\u2019t put things in the hands of the judges, relying on a barrage of knees to stop things in the second round.\u00a0
\nThe man born to a fighting family, his sister Angela is another ONE world champion, is now ready – both mentally and physically – to move up in weight and target another title.
\n\u201cGoing into this fight, I feel that my cardio is better than it\u2019s ever been,\u201d he said. \u201cI truly feel like I\u2019m in the best shape that I\u2019ve been in so far. I think it\u2019s easy to make the mistake when you\u2019re moving up a weight division, to just simply put on the size, to put on the extra weight, and then to neglect the cardio.\u00a0
\n\u201cI took some time to put on extra weight so that when I did step up the training, and when I did start doing my cardio, I would be able to be in the same shape I was fighting for the lightweight title as I\u2019m going to be for the welterweight title.\u201d
\nLee says this is the fight which makes sense, and is confident of claiming the title, and then letting his body adjust to the move up to 185lbs.
\n\u201cI believe it\u2019s about two years since [Abbasov] defended the welterweight title. I\u2019ve been actively clearing out the lightweight division. So right now, there is no clear contender, and with there being no fight in the lightweight or welterweight division, it only makes sense to put the two champions together.
\n\u201cWhen I claim the title, that\u2019s when I take the time to fully make the switch and adjust my weight and adjust my training to be comfortable fighting at 185.\u201d
\nAssamov (23-5), has himself tried to make the move up a division – failing to claim the middleweight crown earlier this year following a third round stoppage against Reinier de Ridder – and is looking forward to welcoming Lee to the welterweights, but believes it will be a tough night for his opponent.
\n\u201cChristian is a good opponent,\u201d he said. \u201cHe is a good, explosive fighter, but I know his weaknesses and I am not a guy from his division \u2013 the rules are different here.\u201d
\nWith the increase in Lee\u2019s weight for this fight, Assamov is keen to see how the jump reflects on his cardio – something the Kyrgyzstan fighter\u2019s wrestling is perfectly suited for.
\n\u201cAs you know, I prefer not to rely only on my wrestling. If he will feel like trading punches, he is welcome. That is what we like to do.\u00a0
\n\u201cBut if he feels brave enough to wrestle then I can take him to deep waters, and we will see who has more oxygen.\u201dONE Fight Night 4: Abbasov vs. Lee takes place Saturday November 19 5am GST at the Singapore Indoor Stadium Arena, Singapore. This is a night not to be missed so mark your calendars, download the ONE Super App, and go to watch.onefc.com now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Christian Lee steps into the cage this weekend to take on Kiamrian Abbasov for the ONE welterweight world title, he will be completing a metamorphosis which has seen him mature from a 17-year-old debutant, to \u2018The Warrior\u2019 he is today.
\nGo back seven years and you will find a featherweight Lee, making his first appearance in ONE \u2013 what we\u2019ve seen since has been a remarkable journey of highs and lows which can peak on Saturday with the chance to hold titles at two weights simultaneously.\u00a0
\nLee (16-4), was never able to capture the featherweight gold, but when moved up to lightweight was able to in his very first fight \u2013 a stunning second round stoppage of Shinya Aoki at ONE Championship: Enter the Dragon in 2019. We went on to win the Lightweight Grand Prix and defend his title on two occasions \u2013 both with early first round stoppages.\u00a0
\nHis rapid progress was somewhat halted when dropping the title to Ok Rae Yoon via decision last year, but responded in the best possible way by immediately reclaiming the gold in August \u2013 this time he didn\u2019t put things in the hands of the judges, relying on a barrage of knees to stop things in the second round.\u00a0
\nThe man born to a fighting family, his sister Angela is another ONE world champion, is now ready \u2013 both mentally and physically \u2013 to move up in weight and target another title.
\n\u201cGoing into this fight, I feel that my cardio is better than it\u2019s ever been,\u201d he said. \u201cI truly feel like I\u2019m in the best shape that I\u2019ve been in so far. I think it\u2019s easy to make the mistake when you\u2019re moving up a weight division, to just simply put on the size, to put on the extra weight, and then to neglect the cardio.\u00a0
\n\u201cI took some time to put on extra weight so that when I did step up the training, and when I did start doing my cardio, I would be able to be in the same shape I was fighting for the lightweight title as I\u2019m going to be for the welterweight title.\u201d
\nLee says this is the fight which makes sense, and is confident of claiming the title, and then letting his body adjust to the move up to 185lbs.
\n\u201cI believe it\u2019s about two years since [Abbasov] defended the welterweight title. I\u2019ve been actively clearing out the lightweight division. So right now, there is no clear contender, and with there being no fight in the lightweight or welterweight division, it only makes sense to put the two champions together.
\n\u201cWhen I claim the title, that\u2019s when I take the time to fully make the switch and adjust my weight and adjust my training to be comfortable fighting at 185.\u201d
\nAssamov (23-5), has himself tried to make the move up a division \u2013 failing to claim the middleweight crown earlier this year following a third round stoppage against Reinier de Ridder \u2013 and is looking forward to welcoming Lee to the welterweights, but believes it will be a tough night for his opponent.
\n\u201cChristian is a good opponent,\u201d he said. \u201cHe is a good, explosive fighter, but I know his weaknesses and I am not a guy from his division \u2013 the rules are different here.\u201d
\nWith the increase in Lee\u2019s weight for this fight, Assamov is keen to see how the jump reflects on his cardio \u2013 something the Kyrgyzstan fighter\u2019s wrestling is perfectly suited for.
\n\u201cAs you know, I prefer not to rely only on my wrestling. If he will feel like trading punches, he is welcome. That is what we like to do.\u00a0
\n\u201cBut if he feels brave enough to wrestle then I can take him to deep waters, and we will see who has more oxygen.\u201dONE Fight Night 4: Abbasov vs. Lee takes place Saturday November 19 5am GST at the Singapore Indoor Stadium Arena, Singapore. This is a night not to be missed so mark your calendars, download the ONE Super App, and go to watch.onefc.com now!<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=250803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250804,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250803\/revisions\/250804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=250803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=250803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=250803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}