Chatri Sityodtong provides an ideal timeline for two-division king Christian Lee’s return and younger brother’s ONE debut

ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong says reigning two-division ONE world champion Christian Lee should be back in action by the summer of 2024.

It’s been over a year since we last saw ‘The Warrior’ step inside the Circle, scoring a fourth-round KO against Kiamrian Abbasov in a back-and-forth war to claim the ONE welterweight MMA world championship.

Three months prior, he finished Ok Rae Yoon in their long-awaited rematch to reclaim the 26 pounds of gold in the lightweight division.

Tragically, Lee’s little sister — aspiring mixed martial artist Victoria Lee — passed away a month following his win over Abbasov. ‘The Warrior’ has taken time off his career to be with his family ever since.

Speaking with BJPenn.com, the ONE head honcho said that Christian Lee is nearing his return to the Circle and he’ll be bringing his younger brother, Adrian Lee, with him.

“Christian comes back, I'll have to get an update from him, but I think in the next couple of months, or maybe in the summer,” the lifelong martial artist said. “And Adrian will also come and will make his debut before that."

He added:

“A lot of cards are in the works again we're throwing 61 events you know minimum of once a week and then on top of that, you know, the monthly Amazon shows so it’s a lot so we just got to slot them both in.”

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Christian Lee’s MMA career has a lot more mileage left

Christian Lee is one of the promotion’s most prolific finishers, earning 16 finishes across 17 victories for an astonishing 94 percent finish rate. That includes 12 wins by way of knockout and another six via submission.

His accomplishments under the ONE banner are made all the more impressive by the fact that he is still only 25 years old.

“But yeah, Christian definitely wants to come back and obviously, you know, he had a year off to grieve and adjust to life without Victoria. But at the same time, he also had the birth of Tommy, his son, a few months ago, so, you know, Christian's just taken a breather. but he's still very young. Christian I think is only 24 or 25 so [he’s still an] absolute phenom.”

Are you excited to see ‘The Warrior’ make his return to combat sports in 2024?