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Don’t expect two-division ONE world champion Christian Lee to hop aboard the Halil Amir hype train anytime soon.
After decimating Kiamrian Abbasov in his last outing, the ONE lightweight and welterweight world titleholder is expected to return to the 170-pound division to defend his throne.
Christian Lee, however, has refuted Amir’s claim as a top contender, pointing out that he only has one fight under the promotion.
The 28-year-old heavy-hitter rose to No.4 in the ONE lightweight rankings after viciously knocking out former world title challenger Timofey Nastyukhin at ONE on Prime Video 2 last September.
While Lee was admittedly impressed by Amir’s performance and insane KO power, he believes the Turkish slugger must face other contenders in the top five to solidify his case for a world title shot.
‘The Warrior’ told ONE Championship in an exclusive interview:
“I think that he did a great job going into the scene knocking out Timofey [Nastyukhin], but you know we’ve seen him fight one time, very impressive performance. I think that now he’s in the top five, it would be good to see him a little bit more active and see him fight at least one more guy in the top five before he gets a title shot.”
Christian Lee, of course, is eager to fight anyone at any given time, so it’s not surprising to see him scoff at fighters who are inactive.
Earlier, the United MMA and Evolve MMA product also addressed a possible rematch with No.1-ranked lightweight fighter Dagi Arslanaliev, on the condition that he fights someone from the top 5 first.
Meanwhile, most fans and pundits alike would love to see a possible world title eliminator showdown between Amir and Arslanaliev to determine who gets a crack at Lee.
Christian Lee plans to return to lightweight for his first world title defense of the year
Considering there’s no clear-cut contender at welterweight at the moment, it seems that all signs point to Christian Lee dropping back down to lightweight for his next fight.
After all, it was actually the 24-year-old superstar’s to cut weight first and perform his duties as a dual-world champion all along.
In a separate interview with ONE Championship, Lee bared his desire to welcome all challengers for his 170-pound gold strap to begin the new year.
“The order that I’m going to defend my belts, I feel is gonna be very important because I plan to defend the belt at lightweight first.”
Lee continued:
“Right now I need to prepare, I need to work my weight down to the lightweight division, but it’s still very doable. I feel that when I prepare to defend my belt at the welterweight division, it’s gonna be different.”
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