Here’s something you know about the Lee family, the dominant dynasty in ONE Championship: they produce winners.
Siblings Angela and Christian Lee both hold gold in the promotion. Angela, soon to turn 25, is the promotion’s reigning atomweight champion. Christian holds gold in the lightweight division. And at just 16, younger sister Victoria recently made her pro debut, earning a rear-naked choke submission earlier this year.
Here’s something you may not be aware of: there is one more Lee sibling still to come.
“There is one last member of my family that is left, and that’s my little brother Adrian,” 23-year old Christian Lee told Cageside Press recently. “He’s 15 years old now, and he’s tearing it up on the junior competition. And he’s now training with the adult fight team. I can see him being signed to ONE championship very soon.”
Sooner than you might think. Christian, like Victoria, turned pro before he turned 18. He has spent his entire career with ONE championship, and has now won both a tournament (stepping in as a short-notice replacement), and the lightweight title, defending the belt twice.
The secret to that success? “I feel like it’s just the years of hard work finally paying off. I’ve been training martial arts my whole life. I got signed to ONE Championship at seventeen years old. So I’m five and a half years in now, nineteen fights in, and I feel like this is really my time to come out on top, and my time to showcase my true skillset to the world. I feel like I’m only getting better every day.”
Perhaps prophetically, Lee added “I’m very grateful for the success I’ve had in the last few years, but this is just the beginning for me. I feel like I’m just getting started in my career.”
When it comes to growing his brand while competing for ONE Championship, which to date has found huge success in Asia while struggling to build a foothold in North America, Lee (born in Canada but residing in Hawaii) feels that “exciting performances like my last outing” are key. “I feel that continuing to dominate my opposition and continuing to get finishes is what’s going to put myself out there.” That, said Lee, is what will eventually get fans worldwide to take notice of him.
Of course, ONE is still looking to break into the U.S., he noted. “ONE Championship is doing an amazing job dominating the Asian market. They are expanding into Europe and now expanding into the U.S., and I can see a show on U.S. soil in the very near future,” predicted Lee. “I think ONE Championship has done amazing so far, but they are still right at the cusp of breaking into new grounds as well. So I can see my career skyrocketing and also the growth of ONE Championship skyrocketing in the very near future.”
Watch our full exclusive interview with ONE Championship’s Christian Lee above!
