But looking more broadly at “The Warrior,” the 24-year-old Canadian-American of Chinese-Singaporean and Korean descent is also one the most accomplished Asian American athletes in all of professional sports, having already captured a world championship in arguably the deepest division of the world’s largest martial arts organization, on top of being a dedicated family man and young father.
Now, he’s set to enter the biggest fight of his life on the biggest stage — moving up a weight class to challenge current ONE Welterweight World Champion Kiamrian Abbasov in the main event of ONE on Prime Video 4 on Friday, November 18.
The Lee Family
Lee is a member of one of MMA’s true royal families alongside sister Angela and younger sister Victoria, known as “The Prodigy.” Christian and Angela both won world championships when they were just 20 years old, and Victoria, who signed with ONE at age 16, is currently undefeated at 3-0. The Lees also have an even younger sibling, Adrian, who is training in amateur martial arts.
In 2016, Angela became the youngest athlete in combat sports history to win a world title for a major global organization, defeating Mei Yamaguchi for the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Championship. Most recently, at ONE on Prime Video 2, Angela took a shot at the ONE Women’s Strawweight World Title and came up just short to longtime rival Xiong Jing Nan.
Christian signed with ONE in 2015 at age 17, and in just a few short years earned a shot at the ONE Featherweight World Championship against Martin Nguyen, which he lost by a narrow split-decision.
The next year, after moving up to lightweight, he challenged then-ONE World Champion and grappling legend Shinya Aoki. Lee was victorious, winning by TKO in the second round, earning his first MMA world title and becoming the youngest-ever male MMA world champion for a major global organization.
Since then, he has defended, lost, and re-claimed the lightweight belt in a rematch with South Korea’s Ok Rae Yoon, and he now has his sights set on the ONE Welterweight World Title against reigning champ Kiamrian Abbasov, a dangerous opponent looking to make a statement in his U.S. primetime debut.
Image via ONE Championship
Watch Christian Lee fight for the ONE Welterweight World Championship on ONE on Prime Video 4, available exclusively to Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.
Fans tuning in outside the U.S. and Canada can check their local listings for the global broadcast or visit Watch.ONEFC.com.
This post was made by NextShark with ONE Championship.
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