ONE Championship moves Christian Lee title fight ‘to put spotlight on biggest comeback in history’

Christian Lee’s long-awaited ONE Championship comeback has been moved to December’s Fight Night 26 main event to give the returning lightweight MMA champion more “spotlight”.
“The Warrior”, who last competed in November 2022, was set to finally return almost two years on from the day against Alibeg Rasulov next week at ONE 169 in Bangkok’s Lumpinee Stadium.
But the Asia-based martial arts promotion already has three other title fights on its stacked November 9 card, which was moved from Atlanta’s State Farm Arena due to “partner obligations” in Thailand.
Now 26-year-old Lee (professional record of 17-4) is set to close the show against Rasulov at the same venue on December 7.
“We’re putting more focus on Christian Lee as a main event comeback, because it’s so huge,” ONE chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong told the Bangkok Post. 
“After much discussion with them, we decided to move the fight to next month and put the spotlight on that.”
Lee has been out of action since defeating Kiamrian Abbasov to win the ONE welterweight MMA title, when he became a two-division champion at Singapore Indoor Stadium on November 19, 2022.
The Canadian-born American’s younger sister and fellow fighter Victoria Lee took her own life aged 18 on Boxing Day later that year.
He has since taken over the Hawaii-based family’s MMA gym, which has been rebranded to Prodigy Training Centre in honour of Victoria, whose nickname in ONE Championship where she went 3-0 was “The Prodigy”.
“It’s probably one of the biggest stories of the year, certainly the biggest comeback story of the year for sure,” Chatri added. 
“It may be the biggest comeback story full stop in the history of ONE Championship.”
Christian Lee’s elder sister Angela Lee retired in September 2023 and vacated the ONE atomweight MMA title. The 28-year-old was the division’s inaugural champion, winning the belt in May 2016.
Adrian Lee, the youngest sibling of the family at 18, debuted in ONE in June and already has two first-round submission victories.