“It’s not animosity, I respect Christian” - Martin Nguyen explains his callout to Christian Lee for ONE X

Martin Nguyen felt so good about his latest win that he called out former rival Christian Lee to a grappling match at ONE X right after it.

Nguyen recorded his first victory since 2019 thanks to his exemplary performance against Kirill Gorobets at ONE: Lights Out last week.

'The Situ-Asian' stopped promotional newcomer Gorobets in the second round of their showdown and surprised everyone watching with an interesting call out to Lee. During the post-fight interviews, Nguyen shed more light on his challenge.

Nguyen said:

“They’re signing huge grappling names and I came from a grappling background. I started my whole journey through jiu-jitsu and I know Christian might be there for his sister’s fight, so why not make money out of it, you know? I might even be here for the ONE X show, so why not make money grappling it out? I know he’s not gonna make weight anytime soon in the featherweight division and the fans and the media keep calling for Nguyen versus Lee 3, so I was like, let’s just grapple it out. I’m sure he wants that one back.”

The pair have previously met twice before. In 2016, Nguyen handed Lee his first loss after five straight victories. Two years later, Nguyen snapped another win streak for Lee as he successfully defended the ONE featherweight world title against ‘The Warrior'.

As a competitor, Nguyen understands how it feels to get a win back, which is his primary motivation for the ONE X callout.

“It's not animosity, I respect Christian. He’s a great champion, a great human being, and this is no animosity towards Christian at all. I’m just saying let’s make money for our family, man.”

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ONE X to feature two grappling bouts

While Martin Nguyen waits for an answer from both Christian Lee and ONE Championship, fans will be pleased to know that there are already two grappling bouts scheduled for ONE X.

Rising Brazilian jiu-jitsu star Danielle Kelly will make her promotional debut by taking on Japanese veteran Mei Yamaguchi. Kelly is one of the latest signings of ONE Championship, as the promotion looks to infuse talent in its submission grappling division.

Meanwhile, multi-time BJJ world champion Andre Galvao will also compete in his first match in ONE as he answered two-division world champion Reinier de Ridder’s challenge. Galvao signed with the promotion in 2021 and has now decided to step in to compete on the 10-year anniversary show.