Christian Lee Reveals Future Plans After Unfortunate Conclusion At ONE Fight Night 26 

Add as a preferred source on Google

On 7 December, Christian Lee left the ring as a two-division MMA World Champion, but unfortunately not in the way he would have wanted. An accidental eye poke to Alibeg Rasulov resulted in their fight being declared a no contest.

"The Warrior" made his highly anticipated return to ONE Championship after a two-year hiatus at ONE Fight Night 26 inside the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. The 26-year-old World Champion looked sharp, landing crisp combinations on his Turkish rival.

Just before the end of round two, though, Lee poked Rasulov in the eye. Rasulov was unable to continue the fight, and the match was declared a no contest. During the press conference, Lee stated that he would like to take a break and return to action next year.

"I didn't actually know about the eye poke until I saw it on the replay after some time across the opposite corner. But you know, I saw on tape that there was an eye poke, and it was just unfortunate that my opponent wasn't able to continue," he said.

"I'd like to be back in there soon. I trained 13 long weeks for this, and I worked really hard. I would take an immediate fight, but I'm about to have another baby so I want to take some time off. But I'm hoping to prepare for March next year."

Both the fighters traded shots for two rounds, and Lee would have wanted to see the ending of his World Title fight against Rasulov, but things went south. Now he says he is open to a rematch and hopeful to finish the fight next time.

"I would definitely be open to a rematch against [Alibeg] Rasulov. For me, I'm not happy going away from a fight without getting a clear, decisive win, getting a finish," Lee said.

"So I'm sure that we'll face each other again in the future. I'm not sure what the immediate plans are going to be. But yeah, if they offer me that match again, I'm going to take it so I can finish it."