Born to a couple of martial arts experts on 21st June 1998, Christian Seung Yong Lee is a Canadian-born Singaporean-American fighter of Chinese/Korean ancestry.
The Lee siblings are quite the phenoms in the MMA world. With elder sister, Angela Lee, reigning as One Championship’s atomweight champ and younger sister, Victoria Lee, signing with the Singapore-based promotion this year at just 16. The 22 year-old Christian himself also has his fair share of noteworthy accolades.
Nicknamed “The Warrior”, Christian was a two-time US National Pankration champion and world MMA champion at the 2012 World Pangration Athlima Federation Championships before signing with One at the age of 17.
Having finished all but one of his professional victories, Lee not only defeated grappling legend Shinya Aoki in 2019 to become the youngest male mixed martial artist to ever win a world title, he also won the One Lightweight Grand Prix title that same year. Now, let’s take a closer look at Christian Lee’s Top 5 MMA Finishes! (in descending order)
5. Vs. Shinya Aoki – OC: Enter The Dragon (May 17, 2019)
After avenging his loss to Team Lakay star Edward Kelly, Christian earned his second title shot, this time against legend, submission specialist and fellow Evolve MMA teammate Shinya Aoki.
The first round was all Aoki’s, as Aoki took Lee to the canvas and stayed on top of him. At one point, Aoki even attempted a nasty armbar that looked really close to finishing the fight. Nevertheless, Lee seemingly miraculously escaped and stood back up.
By the second round, the tables had turned a complete 180, with Lee pushing the pace with his punches and denying all three of Aoki’s takedown attempts.
Before the second round reached the minute mark, Lee advanced with a flurry of punches, devastating the Japanese fighter for the knockout win.
Not only did this victory earn Lee his first world title, it also made him the youngest male MMA world champion, as well as him and his sister Angela the first brother-sister pair of MMA world champions. Quite an achievement!
4. Vs. Keanu Subba – OC: Quest for Greatness (Aug. 18, 2017)
After defeating Wan Jianping, Lee went to war in an epic back-and-forth clash against Malaysian fighter, Keanu Subba on enemy territory in Kuala Lumpur.
The first round was mostly a stand-up affair that was ultimately dominated by Subba.
In the second round, Lee turned the tables around and rocked Subba with a right hand early on. Although Subba took Lee down and bloodied his face with elbows, Lee regained his momentum with takedowns of his own and ended round two with a tight D’Arce choke.
Lee started the third round with another takedown and landed on top. From full mount, Lee rained ground and pound on Subba before finishing him with a triangle choke and hybrid armbar submission.
3. Vs. Iuri Lapicus – OC: Inside the Matrix (Oct. 30, 2020)
Having won both the One Lightweight title and the One Lightweight Grand Prix title, Lee was booked to defend his title for the first time against the vicious Iuri Lapicus of Moldova, who was 14-0 with a 100% finishing rate at the time.
Lee started the round blitzing in with punches, only for Lapicus to drop him with a punch and stay on top of him while on the ground. Lee nevertheless escaped, got back up, and answered with a takedown of his own.
Lee landed in side control and successfully transitioned to full mount, but Lapicus flipped himself over and attempted a heel hook submission.
Unfortunately for Lapicus, this spelled the beginning of the end, as Lee escaped. got to top again and finished Lapicus with ground and pound for the knockout victory.
2. Vs. David Meak – OC: Spirit of Champions (Dec. 11, 2015)
At the age of 17, Lee made his debut against 6-fight pro veteran David Meak.
Despite Meak’s proficiency as a striker, Lee finished Meak with a flurry of punches in just 29 seconds of the first round for the knockout win.
This was just the beginning of an era for the young phenom.
1. Vs. Kotetsu Boku – OC: Warriors of the World (Dec. 9, 2017)
After finishing Keanu Subba, Christian Lee continued his winning ways against former One Lightweight champion Kotetsu “No Face” Boku.
Although Boku caught Lee’s attention with a hard leg kick, Lee took control of the momentum by taking Boku to the ground.
Boku scrambled back up and landed a hard right hand, but Lee regained control with his grappling, attempted a D’Arce choke and landed knee after knee upon the head of a grounded Boku.
Boku got back up once again, but Lee immediately suplexed Boku slamming the former champion into unconsciousness, before quickly finishing things off with a couple of hammer fists to win by knockout.
