ONE Championship: Victoria Lee’s father has ‘completely retired’ as a coach, Christian Lee ‘hasn’t trained’ since sister’s death, says Chatri
- ONE putting together interim title fights for the two divisions Christian Lee reigns, according to chairman and CEO
- Lightweight and welterweight champ will return but Angela Lee ‘doesn’t have it in her to fight or train any more’, says Chatri
Christian Lee intends to return to ONE Championship but will need to find a new camp, with his father having “completely retired” as a coach, according to Chatri Sityodtong.
Angela’s brother Christian, who holds ONE’s lightweight and welterweight MMA titles, is “100 per cent” coming back, but will take the rest of the year off, Chatri told the Post.
“I try my best to be as supportive as possible from their perspective, not mine,” Chatri told the Post after Saturday’s ONE Fight Night 11 card in Bangkok. “I talked to Angela two days ago. She said, ‘Chatri, I’m likely going to retire, I haven’t fully decided yet.’
“She just doesn’t have it in her to fight or train any more. I told her that whatever you decide, I support your decision. This is a very deeply personal thing.
“On the flip side, when I spoke to Christian – we hadn’t spoken in six months – he right away said, ‘No, no, I’m 100 per cent coming back.’ He hasn’t trained at all.
“Ken has retired as a coach completely. The family is still going through a grieving and healing process and it’s going to take time.”
ONE is finally set to move forward with plans for interim titles in the divisions reigned by Angela and Christian, however.
Stamp Fairtex and Ham Seo-hee will battle for the interim women’s atomweight belt at ONE Fight Night 13 in August, Chatri told the Post, while fights are being lined up to crown new interim champions in the men’s lightweight and welterweight divisions.
“I did ask Christian for his blessing. We’re going to do interim title fights,” Chatri said.
“I just spoke to [ONE senior vice-president] Matt Hume about putting together what he thinks are worthy title fights, hopefully we can get it done in the next few months,” Chatri added.
“I think Murad Ramazanov should be one of those guys, he’s 11-0. The interesting one though is [middleweight champion] Reinier de Ridder says he wants to move down to welterweight and fight for the title. That could be a fun fight. I have no idea if that’s going to happen or not.
“RDR versus Murad might be one. They’re [the matchmakers] just toying with a bunch of ideas now but obviously we want to make some good fights that are worthy of the world title.”
