ONE Championship founder Chatri Sityodtong confirmed that Christian “The Warrior” Lee will be coming back in February after a year of inactivity. There are still no exact details about who will face Lee in his return, but the promotion is now reportedly choosing from the three fighters on its list.
It can be recalled that the 25-year-old has taken a break after the death of his sister and fellow fighter Victoria Lee last December. After that, despite winning against Ok Rae Yoon and Kiamrian Abbasov in August and November 2022, respectively, Lee didn’t enter another fight.
Fortunately, after a year of rest, Sityodtong said that the fighter is now ready to come back.
“I spoke to Christian a couple of weeks ago to see how he’s doing and he gave me the green light,” Chatri told South China Morning Post. “He said, ‘I’m ready to go, Chatri, tell me when.’ The team and I talked about it, so February is when Christian will come back.
“It will be a title defense. It’s going to be a nice card, so we’re trying to figure it out. It’s been narrowed down to three opponents who are all worthy of a title shot, it’s just going to come down to which athlete we think is right to go for gold.
“…He is very fired up. He’s been training for the last few months, he says he’s in his best form ever.”
There are still no exact details about the fighter’s next bout, but ONE is reportedly considering having Lee for its main event when it returns to Singapore on February 17 for ONE Fight Night 19. As a lightweight and welterweight MMA champ, it is also unknown what title he will be defending, but the executive said they have already narrowed down the list of possible opponents for Lee to three.
