“Abbasov brought out the best in me” - Christian Lee admits Kiamrian Abbasov was "not an easy fight"

Christian Lee always knew that bumping up to welterweight and taking on Kiamrian Abbasov was a tough task, and their match at ONE on Prime Video 4 proved just as much.

The reigning ONE lightweight world champion went on a gold hunt this past weekend and gritted out a fourth-round knockout win over Abbasov to capture the ONE welterweight world title at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Lee, during the ONE on Prime Video post-fight interview, admitted that Abbasov was the toughest fighter he’s ever faced. The now two-division world champion added that Abbasov managed to drag out the absolute best out of him during their match:

“Absolutely. This was the toughest fight of my career. And Abbasov brought out the best in me. I feel like I brought out the best in him and it was definitely not an easy fight. But with all the training and hard work that I put in, I was able to pull it off when the time came down to it.”

Christian Lee’s fortitude was put to the test as early in the first round when Abbasov tagged him with several heavy blows that almost finished him in the opener. Shaking off the cobwebs, 'The Warrior' pushed on and launched his assault in the fourth.

Lee, who was now on the offensive, blasted Abbasov with thundering elbows before finishing things off with a punishing ground-and-pound game.

The win made Lee the fourth fighter to hold world titles simultaneously across two divisions in ONE Championship. Martin Nguyen was the first two-division world champion in ONE Championship while Aung La N Sang and Reinier de Ridder round out the exclusive club.

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Christian Lee details the difficulty of his match against Abbasov

While this wasn’t the first time that Christian Lee has moved up a weight class, the Singaporean-American star did admit that his debut at welterweight was one of the most difficult fights of his career.

Lee, who started his career at featherweight, said during the post-fight interview that he was absolutely gassed near the end of the match.

Despite his physical struggles, Christian Lee knew that he had the mental edge and proceeded to batter Abbasov with his striking:

“That quote holds true in that fight, towards the end of the fight, I'm telling you I could not breathe. But I wanted to win more. So it's true. In order to be successful you have to put everything on the line. You have to be successful as badly as you want to breathe, and I think that the best in the world know that.”