Christian Lee reveals what it’s like surviving the championship rounds in a tough fight

As the most prolific finisher in ONE Championship history, Christian Lee has a knack for making winning look easy at times. That was not the case in his ONE on Prime Video 4 main event against former ONE welterweight world champion Kiamrian Abbasov.

Stepping into the circle with the opportunity to become a two-division world champion, ‘The Warrior’ was tasked with taking out a bigger and stronger opponent in Abbasov. After facing adversity in the opening round, Lee was able to recover and compose himself long enough to drag Abbasov into the championship rounds. It was there that the tide turned, and Lee was able to score a spectacular fourth-round knockout.

Speaking with ONE Championship, Christian Lee shared thoughts on his welterweight world title win in November and what it takes to keep pushing forward in the later rounds of a grueling championship bout.

“Being in the championship rounds is something different. It takes the training, having the cardio to push through when time comes down to it. But it also takes a tremendous amount of mental strength to just not give yourself any second to doubt your cardio, to not even take a second to overanalyze the fight. You just have to go on pure instincts and pure training.”

Christian Lee continued:

“When it came down to those championship rounds, it was everything that I’ve done in the training room just kicking in and taking over. Because when you’re that exhausted – and in my case having gotten knocked down in the first round – there’s not so much thinking going on.”

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Christian Lee’s impressive work ethic began at an early age

Training from an early age alongside his older sister Angela Lee, a strong work ethic was established from an early age. That work has clearly paid off as both Lee and his sister hold an incredible three world championships between them and are two of the most impressive finishers in ONE history, with Christian Lee boasting a 94% finish rate while Angela Lee is not far behind with an 82% finish rate.

“My sister and I started fighting so young, and we both started our careers around the same time,” said Christian Lee on the MMA Junkie Podcast. “So we know how the fight game works, and we're able to just put everything aside and get to work when it's time to work.”

Despite being one of the best competitors in ONE history, ‘The Warrior’ believes the best is yet to come, with their younger brother Adrian Lee waiting in the wings for his own ONE Championship debut.

“I definitely think that he’s better at 16 than I was at 16. With how hard he’s working, the amount of work he’s putting in, he’s gonna be better than me for sure. He is taller than me now and he’s still growing so I hope to see him keep growing, get bigger than me, get stronger than me, and eventually better than me.”