ONE lightweight and welterweight world champion Christian Lee is set to make his long-awaited return at ONE 169 on November 8 in Atlanta.
He will be defending his lightweight title against the undefeated Alibeg Rasulov at the State Farm Arena in ONE Championship’s second US event of the year.
Lee has been out of action since winning the welterweight title at ONE on Prime Video 4 in November of 2022.
At the end of that year, tragedy struck the Lee family as Christian’s younger sister and former ONE Championship athlete, Victoria, took her own life. This led to her siblings, Christian and Angela, to take a break from the spotlight.
Christian’s elder sister Angela has since vacated her atomweight title and retired from MMA whilst his younger brother Adrian became the first of the Lee family to compete after Victoria’s passing, when he made his pro debut at ONE 167 in June.
Christian’s upcoming opponent, Turkey’s Rasulov, made his debut in ONE this past weekend at ONE Fight Night 23 where he won a unanimous decision after going five rounds with former champion Ok Rae Yoon.
Despite the interim lightweight title being on the line in this fight, Rasulov was unable to win the belt after he made weight but failed his hydration test.
The lightweight title fight joins two other previously announced world championship clashes on the card for November 8 in Atlanta.
In the main event, ONE three-weight world champion Anatoly Malykhin will defend his heavyweight title against Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane.
ONE featherweight Muay Thai world champion Tawanchai will also be in action when he faces Jo Nattawut in a trilogy fight following their closely contested clash at ONE 167.
