With a noticeably thicker frame, is Christian Lee sacrificing speed in favor of size and power?

On August 26, Christian Lee will get the chance to right the wrong he, and many within the MMA community, feel he suffered in his ONE: Revolution world title fight against the now-reigning ONE lightweight world champion Ok Rae Yoon.

On that night in September 2021, ‘The Warrior’ engaged in a five-round war with the South Korean. After the contest with Ok, Lee walked out of the circle stunned having lost his world title via unanimous decision.

The general consensus appeared to believe Lee did enough to walk away with his belt that night. However, the judges saw otherwise. Even after a formal review of the fight, the result was upheld by ONE’s competition committee. The two will now run it back in an attempt to leave no question of who the true lightweight world champion is.

Intent on reclaiming ONE gold, Christian Lee has been putting in work, as seen in an image shared by his sister, ONE women’s atomweight world champion Angela Lee, on Instagram.

“3 weeks until we hear... #ANDNEW 🙌🏼 August 26th, you take back what's yours bro!! @christianleemma 👊🏼💥”

In the image, ‘The Warrior’ can be seen sporting a thicker frame than usual, potentially trading in his speed for size and power.

Given how his first outing with Ok Rae Yoon played out, sacrificing speed for knockout power could prove to be a double-edged sword for the former champion.

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Cardio is key for Christian Lee’s succes against Ok Rae Yoon in ONE 160 rematch

In their 2021 meeting at ONE: Revolution, Christian Lee was the winner in the eyes of many. Unfortunately, he was not the winner in the eyes of the judges and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

Throughout the 25-minute scrap, Lee looked impressive, causing damage to Ok Rae Yoon early on. That included breaking the South Korean’s orbital and scoring a big knockdown in the third round.

As we all know, Lee's accomplishments in the first three frames weren’t enough to secure the decision. In the championship rounds, ‘The Warrior’ began to slow down. With the champion running on fumes, Ok Rae Yoon was clearly the fresher fighter and his performance in those two rounds seemed to trump everything that Lee had accomplished in the first three.

To avoid a potential repeat, cardio will be a key factor for Lee. If ‘The Warrior’ had been able to keep pace in the later rounds, he would most likely have gold wrapped around his waist today.

There is no doubt that Lee will be looking to end things early with a definitive knockout of his rival, but he would be wise to prepare for another five rounds, otherwise he could suffer the same fate as he did nearly a year ago.