Newly crowned ONE Lightweight World Champion Christian “The Warrior” Lee believes there’s no need for an immediate trilogy with Ok Rae Yoon after a masterful performance at ONE 160 in August.
Coming off a close decision loss to the South Korean in their first fight, Lee put all doubts to rest in their rematch when he finished Ok in the second round after dominating from start to finish.
For the 24-year-old, the win was enough of a statement that there’s no need for a rubber match—at least not yet.
“This fight, this rematch was—I said it in the weigh-ins—a continuation of our first fight. To me, the start of round one was the continuation. It was round six. So the only way this could have ended for good [was] to get a finish,” Lee said.
“If Ok finished me [in our first fight], there [would’ve been] no need for a rematch. For me, finishing Ok the way I did, there’s no need for a rematch because I feel that I won the first time. And I made sure that I won the second time. So this is it.”
There won’t be a shortage of challengers for Lee in the loaded lightweight division.
Of course, there’s the prospect of facing Saygid Guseyn “Dagi” Arslanaliev once more, or he could wait for the winner of the clash between Saygid Izagakhmaev and Zhang Lipeng at ONE 161 on 29 September.
Lee admitted that he hasn’t had a chance to think about his next challengers yet, as his focus was on Ok for the past few months.
“I haven’t even looked at the top five all year. I don’t know who’s in it. But you know, this lightweight division is without a doubt the most stacked division across every organization,” Lee said.
“So I know there’s going to be another hungry contender looking to get a shot, and whoever that may be, I’m going to be ready for them.
“Right now, today, I’m the best version of myself that I’ve ever been. I just claimed my title back. And I feel that I’m the best lightweight fighter in the world, across any organization. So I would love to put that out there, and I’d love to prove it.”