The ONE lightweight championship was on the line at ONE on TNT II. But not for very long.
While it didn’t have the western star power of last week’s ONE on TNT I, the follow-up show on April 14, aired via tape delay, did feature another battle for gold atop the card. That lightweight title fight saw Christian Lee put his belt on the line against Timofey Nastyukhin.
Lee, if not a household name with western audiences just yet, was part of the Lee dynasty in ONE, alongside sister/atomweight champ Angela Lee, and Victoria Lee, the pair’s younger sibling, who recently made her own successful ONE Championship debut.
Nastyukhin was arguably best known for a nasty finish of former UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez, in the American’s ONE debut.
In the end, Christian Lee’s most recent title defense was over in little over a minute. With the action underway, Lee dropped for a takedown, but the challenger was able to fend that off. On one of the first major exchanges, however, Lee caught the Russian on the way in, landing a left hook that wobbled Nastyukhin.
From there, blow after blow landed on he challenger, double digits in total, with Nastyukhin failing to answer back. That was enough for the ref, who waved off the affair. And while Timofey Nastyukhin reacted with disbelief, it was hard to find fault with the call, given the lack of an answer to Lee’s offensive barrage.
Lee, a Canadian-born Hawaiian, of Singaporean descent, now has five finishes among his six straight wins, and continues to improve with each outing. At just 22-years old, he’s also nowhere near his prime— with plenty of time to add title defenses and records to his story. Improving to 15-3 with the win, Lee has already defeated several of ONE’s top contenders.
Official Result: Christian Lee (c) def. Timofey Nastyukhin by TKO, Round 1, 1:13
