A 21-year-old champion is already good enough to de-throne UFC king Khabib Nurmagomedov, MMA promoter says
- Christian Lee, a 21-year-old ONE Championship champion, is already good enough to de-throne UFC lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov.
- That is according to ONE Champion chairman and CEO Chatri Sityadtong, who told Insider he would co-promote a ONE vs. UFC event which puts his champion Lee in the MMA cage with Nurmagomedov.
- Sityadtong called Lee a "monster" who is capable of competing against any MMA organization's lightweight champion and winning.
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One of the most powerful promoters in mixed martial arts, Chatri Sityadtong, says his 21-year-old "phenom" could top any lightweight in the world including Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Such a match would cause logistical problems as the youngster, Christian Lee, fights in Sityadtong's Singapore-based fight firm ONE Championship.
Nurmagomedov, meanwhile, is contracted to Dana White's Las Vegas-based company, the UFC.
But that does not deter Sityadtong who told Insider this month that an inter-promoter fight that pits ONE against UFC, puts Sityadtong and White on stage together, and sees Lee going toe-to-toe with Nurmagomedov is wildly interesting.
In this one-of-a-kind scenario, Sityadtong is confident of success. "He can go up against any lightweight, in any organization, and come out on top."
The ONE champion is from the impressive Lee family dynasty; has won world titles in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, pankration, and submission grappling; and, at 21, is the youngest male champion at a major organization in MMA history.
Nurmagomedov, though, has an intimidating unbeaten run, has signature victories over Rafael dos Anjos, Conor McGregor, and Dustin Poirier, and is Insider's pick as the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in all MMA.
Regardless, the levels Lee could progress to excites Sityadtong, who told us he could defeat Nurmagomedov even if they fought today.
"Christian Lee is our lightweight world champion and 21 years old, coming into his own and is genuinely a phenom," Sityadtong said.
"I feel like he could go toe-to-toe with the very best lightweights in the world in any organization and come out on top," Sityadtong said.
"He is explosive, dynamic, athletic, very skilled technically, and he is just a monster. I've seen him in training, compete in world title matches … he's only just beginning.
"He's only going to improve in the next year, five years, he's just going to be … yeah, he can go up against any lightweight, in any organization, and come out on top."
Though uncommon, there has been a one-off merging of combat sports promotions in recent months as Bellator MMA and Rizin cross-promoted two shows at the end of 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.
On whether ONE would consider co-promoting an event with Bellator, Rizin, or UFC, Sityadtong said there's only one organization he'd work with — UFC, and it would have to be for a "world champion versus world champion" fight.
"I would love that," he said.
And if he'd risk Lee's status as a fast-rising mixed martial artist against Nurmagomedov, Sityadtong added: "Definitely … we would do that."
Sityadtong and White have one thing in common right now
Major sports leagues and organizations around the world shuttered operations from mid-March as the spread of the coronavirus worsened.
Fight sports, particularly MMA, has appeared keen to be the first of all sports to restart its live events calendar.
UFC boss White, for example, wanted his UFC 249 event to take place on April 18 at the Tachi Resort Casino, Native American land in California, as a way of circumventing governmantal restrictions in place to try and quash COVID-19.
Disney, which owns UFC's broadcast partner ESPN, ordered White to nix the show after mounting political pressure from California governor Gavin Newsom.
But rather than cancel the entire thing, White has instead moved the date and location to May 9 in Florida — a state which has deemed sports as essential businesses.
Sityadtong can seemingly relate to White's desire to use inventive means to keep combat sports going.
ONE Championship's last live event was on February 28. It was initially open to fans but Sityadtong refunded tickets and put the show behind-closed-doors after a coronavirus outbreak in Singapore.
Sityadtong was hoping to restart his fight calendar in April but when the Singapore government closed its borders, bringing foreign athletes into the country became improbable.
ONE Championship's next event is now tentatively rescheduled for May 29 in Manila, the Philippines, where there are currently 7,777 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 511 deaths. Like its last show in February, it will be a behind-closed-doors event.
Sityadtong said he is determined to restart his calendar because he wants to entertain ONE's fans who are self-isolating in their homes.
"I think about the entertainment aspect," he told us. "People at home want to be entertained. Our athletes want to compete. Not a single athlete has told me they don't want to compete in this environment. They say I don't care about the virus, I want to compete. The athletes want it, the fans want it, my team want it … so we want to push forward.
"I do appreciate and respect Dana White and [boxing promoter] Eddie Hearn's desire for the show to go on. I have the exact same spirit as them. In crises you can shrink away or face them head on and drive through them. That is what Dana White is doing, what Eddie Hearn is doing, and what I'm doing.
"I'm 100% confident that UFC and ONE Championship will survive and thrive in this environment."
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