Christian Lee believes that he is the best Lightweight MMA fighter in the world.
On Wednesday night, he put on a performance that may back up his claim.
Lee, the One Championship Lightweight champion, needed less than 2 minutes to stop Timofey Nastyukhin
Christian Lee
retains the ONE Lightweight World Title with a first-round stoppage of Timofey Nastyukhin! @ChristianLeeMMA @tntdrama @BleacherReport @BR_MMA @brlive #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship #ONEonTNT2 pic.twitter.com/mxxy1ZRF8S
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) April 15, 2021
retains the ONE Lightweight World Title with a first-round stoppage of Timofey Nastyukhin!
Lee, the One Championship Lightweight champion, needed less than 2 minutes to stop Timofey Nastyukhin on One Championship on TNT II. Lee stunned him with a vicious counter left and wasted no time following up with a barrage of punches before the referee jumped in to stop the fight. Nastyukhin tried to get up for his part, but Lee’s speed and tenacity were too much for him to recover from to avoid the stoppage.
If styles make fights, this fight is one everyone was eager to see. Most looked to see how Lee, a very well-rounded fighter, would do against a power puncher in Nastyukhin. He established his speed advantage very early in the first round. It was clear that Lee was looking to time the openings Nastyuhkin’s power shots provided. As Nastyukhin pushed forward, Lee ducked and threw the counter left hand that slumped him and started the fight-ending sequence. (H/T MMAFighting.com)
“I couldn’t have asked for a better story,” Lee said after his latest title defense. “I trained 10 very hard weeks leading up to this match. This was the most important fight of my life. Very soon, I’m going to become a father so this fight was dedicated to my baby girl Leah on the way and my wife Katie back at home,” Lee shared after the fight.
“Timofey, he’s a dangerous opponent. He likes to go in there and he goes for the knockout. So our game plan was just to capitalize on that. Speed and accuracy beats power so that’s what happened tonight.”
Though there was no controversy, Nastyukhin did protest the stoppage immediately following the end of the fight.
“If I was in his shoes, I would probably be feeling the same,” Lee said about Nastyukhin’s complaint. “I’m sure he felt that he could have continued but the way I hurt him right there, I was about to take his back and look for a submission. So I feel confident I would have won the fight either way.”
What do you think of Christian Lee’s performance?