Christian Lee open to submission grappling in the future

Christian Lee is confident he can make a jump into the purely grappling realm of Brazilian jiu-jitsu once his mixed martial arts career slows down.

In an interview with ONE Championship, the former ONE lightweight world champion said that he sees himself transitioning into submission grappling later in his fighting career. Lee, however, stressed that MMA is still his priority.

At 24 years old, Lee is still young and has more than enough time to build his legacy in MMA.

“I do feel like I can step in there and grapple with the top grapplers in the world. But there are just little things [to take into account]. When you focus purely on one area of the sport, when you focus purely on grappling or purely on striking, you need to adjust, because MMA is a completely different game.”

He added:

“So while I’m fighting, while I’m still active in MMA, I think I’m going to stick to that. But you know, maybe later on down the line, once I’m not so active in MMA, then I’ll look to do other things like grappling.”

Lee is one of the most dangerous finishers in ONE Championship, with 14 of his 15 wins coming by way of either knockout or submission. Adept at all facets of MMA, Lee holds 10 knockouts and four submissions to his name.

There was a six-fight stretch from 2018 to 2021 that saw Lee knock out five of his six opponents, including the legendary Shinya Aoki, to become the ONE lightweight world champion in May 2019.

Despite his penchant for knocking people out, Lee had no problem forcing people to tap and it was evident after he submitted Mahmoud Mohamed, Cary Bullos, Keanu Subba, and Kazunori Yokota from 2016 to 2018.

Christian Lee reveals rematch with Ok Rae Yoon

Christian Lee was in unparalleled form when he reigned as ONE lightweight world champion from 2019 to 2021 knocking people out with reckless abandon.

His run, however, ended in September 2021 when he lost the title to South Korea’s Ok Rae Yoon via unanimous decision.

It was a loss that was razor-thin close but a rematch is set, although no official word has yet been released.

Christian Lee said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that there’s already a verbal agreement between parties and all that’s needed is a date and location.

“So verbally, the rematch is going to take place. We just don't have a time. We don't have a location. You know in that rematch, it's going to, I think everyone's going to see, it's going to be a very different fight. I'm not going to chase him. I'm going to just stand there, give him exactly what he wants. And I'm going to beat him at his own game. I'm going to beat him everywhere.”

Catch the interview below: