According to Chatri Sityodtong, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, Christian Lee would be sidelined throughout the entirety of the 2023 competition season.
However, the lifelong martial artist and top honcho of the world’s largest martial arts organization revealed that the Singaporean-American superstar will return to competition within the next calendar year. This news was delivered by the individual who has practiced martial arts for their entire lives.
Chatri Sityodtong made these comments in an interview with the South China Morning Post:
“I had a conversation with Christian. He is committed to fighting one hundred percent, but he is going to take the rest of the year off. He is going to come back the following year. In order to keep things moving along smoothly and efficiently this year, we will hold interim title matches in both divisions.
On Boxing Day of the previous year, Christian Lee and Angela Lee, who were the older siblings and world champions in their respective divisions in ONE Championship, were forced to say goodbye to their younger sister Victoria Lee.
While it has been speculated that Angela would hang up her gloves as a result of the death of her sister, Christian, who is a world champion in two different divisions at the organization based in Singapore, intends to carry on with his mission in the all-encompassing sport.
The knockout machine, who is 24 years old and has the ONE lightweight world title, successfully defended it against Ok Rae Yoon at ONE 160, which took place in August of last year.
Not one to rest on his laurels, ‘The Warrior’ made the move up to the welterweight ranks in order to challenge Kiamrian Abbasov for the world championship in two weight classes in the main event of ONE on Prime Video 4.
It goes without saying that he was successful in his aim, since the athlete from Kyrgyzstan and the athlete from Russia both fell asleep at 4:20 of the fourth stanza.
Christian Lee can anticipate having a lot on his plate when he returns the next year as a result of the announcement made by Chatri Sityodtong that there will be two interim world titles established.