“I've seen him” - Christian Lee has Saygid Izagakhmaev in his sights

Christian Lee regained the ONE lightweight world championship with an absolutely dominant performance against former champion Ok Rae Yoon at ONE 160 on August 26. It was a fantastic showing for ‘The Warrior’ after dropping the title nearly a year ago to Yoon in what was considered a highly controversial decision.

Lee left the judges out of it this time, dispatching his South Korean opponent via knockout just one minute into the second round. Following his victory, ‘The Warrior’ spoke during the ONE 160 post-fight press conference about what comes next. When specifically asked about Saygid Izagakhmaev, Lee said:

“I've seen him. He got one good fight in ONE so far. But you know, like I said he had one good fight. He's got another tough fight ahead of him. So I think it only makes sense to work with our rankings. See who's in the top five, and let them sort it out. So let's have a few of the top five contenders fight their way up to the top, and then I'll take whoever's next there.”

With just one fight inside the circle, Izagakhmaev has already established himself as the No.5-ranked lightweight contender. He made his promotional debut at ONE: Heavy Hitters in January, defeating James Nakashima via second-round submission. The Russian grappler steps back into the circle at ONE 161 to face Zhang Lipeng.

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Who could be next for Christian Lee?

With his defeat of Ok Rae Yoon at ONE 160, Christian Lee has successfully defeated a majority of the promotion’s top five ranked lightweights. This includes Dagi Arslanaliev, Timofey Nastyukhin, Shinya Aoki, and the aforementioned Ok Rae Yoon.

At this point, there may not be a clear contender, but that could change at ONE 161 should Saygid Izagakhmaev have an impressive showing in his sophomore appearance. Until then, Christian Lee appears to be content with sitting back and seeing how things play out.

“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. 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.”