ONE Lightweight World Champion Christian “The Warrior” Lee describes his next step as the biggest moment of his young but storied career.
But he knows that it will take a lot for him to overcome the challenge that lies before him.
Lee moves up a weight class to challenge ONE Welterweight World Champion Kiamrian “Brazen” Abbasov in the main event of ONE Fight Night 4 on Saturday morning, 19 November, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Uncertain about who the next contender is in the lightweight division, Lee will focus on joining the two-division World Champion club in ONE, something that only men like Reinier de Ridder, Aung La N Sang, and Martin Nguyen have achieved so far.
“Yeah, absolutely. It’s really just the way the fight game works. Every performance is your biggest performance. And going into this fight, this is everything,” he said.
“Everything that I’ve worked towards has led to this moment, so yeah, definitely. This is going to be my biggest moment to date.”
To get his moment, Lee will have to overcome the dangerous Abbasov, who’s known for his ability to compete wherever the match goes.
Prior to moving up to middleweight to challenge De Ridder, Abbasov won four straight bouts at welterweight.
“I think Abbasov’s greatest strength is the fact that he’s a well-rounded martial artist. He’s a very durable fighter. He’s got good cardio. I feel that he’s able to mix up his striking and his wrestling quite well, which is why he is the champion,” he said.
“So yeah, it’s definitely not going to be an easy fight for me, it’s not an easy fight for anybody. And I’m training really hard to make sure that I’m prepared for everything that Abbasov is going to bring to the table.”
That’s why Lee isn’t taking this fight lightly.
While he’s still confident of a finish, he knows that it won’t come early, so it’s up to him to break him down and score the win later in the fight.
“Of course, my goal is always to finish my opponents in the first round. But technically speaking, giving Abbasov credit, how tough he is. I think that I’m going to end up wearing him down and submitting him in the third round,” he said.
In the meantime, tickets for ONE Fight Night 5 and ONE 164: Pacio vs. Brooks at the Mall of Asia Arena on 3 December are available at https://linktr.ee/ONEPH.
Also, catch “ONE Warrior Series Philippines” every Sunday night on GTV, the ONE Super App, and watch.onefc.com. Weekly replays air on Tap Go, ONE Championship Philippines Facebook, and ONE Championship’s official YouTube channel.
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