ONE Championship: Christian Lee thinks Roberto Soldic is ‘a tough fight for anybody’ – from lightweight to middleweight
- Lee reclaimed the lightweight title with a TKO of Ok Rae-yoon last month in Singapore, and can ‘definitely’ see himself fighting Soldic in the future
- Former KSW champ signed with ONE earlier this summer, and could conceivably fight in three weight classes in the promotion
You can count Christian Lee among Roberto Soldic’s admirers.
The 27-year old Croatian Soldic previously held the welterweight and middleweight titles in Polish MMA promotion KSW, and recently signed with Singapore-based martial arts organisation ONE Championship, where Lee is the lightweight champion.
Lee was aware of Soldic before he made the move between promotions, and is already impressed by the Croatian’s skills.
“I’ve seen him fight, he’s another dangerous contender out there,” the Canadian-American, 24, told the Post last week.
Soldic’s move to ONE generated plenty of buzz, but the details of his debut with the promotion are still a mystery. In fact, it is not even clear which weight class he will compete in, with lightweight, welterweight and middleweight all looking like possibilities.
By Lee’s estimation, Soldic is good enough to be a threat to anybody in any of those divisions.
“If you go from lightweight, welterweight, up to middleweight, I think he’s going to be a tough fight for anybody,” Lee said. “He’s definitely got talent. I think he’s a great fighter. He hasn’t fought in ONE yet, but I’ll definitely keep my eyes out for when he makes his debut.”
If he were to win welterweight gold, the odds of his eventually encountering Soldic in the ONE Circle seem quite high.
ONE: Christian Lee targets Abbasov title fight in 2022
And if the fight were to occur, Lee is confident he would find a way to win.
“I can definitely see us lining up in the future,” he said.
“I believe in my skill set. I think he’s another tough competitor and a finisher like myself and I think it would make for a great fight one day.”
Lee (16-4) was last in action at ONE 160 late last month in Singapore, when he reclaimed the lightweight title with a dominant second-round stoppage of South Korea’s Ok Rae-yoon. He lost the title to Ok in September of 2021, by way of a contentious judges’ decision.
Before losing the title, Lee defended it against Iuri Lapicus and Timofey Nastyukhin, defeating both with strikes inside a round.
When Soldic (20-3) makes his ONE debut, he will do so with seven wins in the rear-view mirror. Highlights of that streak include stoppage wins over reputable fighters like Dricus Du Plessis, who is now a ranked contender in the UFC middleweight division, and former KSW champions Michal Materla and Mamed Khalidov
