ONE Championship: Iuri Lapicus predicts his power will lead to early finish of Christian Lee
- Lapicus set to challenge Lee for lightweight crown at Inside the Matrix on October 30 in Singapore
- ‘He has never faced a real lightweight, with the strength that I have,’ says undefeated Moldovan
Iuri Lapicus has had six months to think about fighting incumbent ONE Championship lightweight champion Christian Lee and there’s one thing he’s certain of, after going over each and every possible outcome in his head.
“We won’t go past the second round,” the 25-year-old told SCMP MMA.
No prizes for guessing which way the Moldovan-born, Italy-based fighter thinks the cards will fall at ONE: Inside the Matrix on Friday.
Lapicus (14-0) has ended all 14 of his wins inside the distance – 13 inside the first round – and in the 22-year-old Lee (13-3) he sees a fighter who will have to deal with one problem in particular when they face each other at Friday night’s bumper, four-title fight card inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
“He’s still new to this division and he has never faced a lightweight with the strength that I have,” said Lapicus. “This will be a whole new experience for him.”
The Lapicus-Lee clash was originally set down for May, until the pandemic put the world on hold. Lapicus was well into his preparations when reality struck but he decided then to keep his fight camp going. Given no one really knew when the rescheduled bout might take place, there was only one tweak made to Lapicus’ daily schedule at the Team Leone Petrosyan gym in Milan, given it quickly became apparent months would be passing.