"I Would Dominate Him": Christian Lee Calls Out UFC King Islam Makhachev

Christian Lee does not do small talk when it comes to his own place in the sport. The ONE Championship double champion, who holds the lightweight and welterweight belts, has called out Islam Makhachev for a cross-promotional superfight, and he did not hedge a word of it. Lee says he would dominate the UFC's pound-for-pound king, outwrestling him and knocking him out, and he wants Makhachev's welterweight belt as the prize. It is a bold claim aimed at the most feared fighter in the sport, and Lee made it in an interview with MMA Fighting on the eve of his own title defence. He sees himself as the top fighter in the world regardless of promotion, and he identified Makhachev's welterweight title as the one he wants. The Hawaiian-born champion's confidence is not hard to understand. He is 18-4 with 17 finishes, a record built on ending fights rather than surviving them, and he has held two divisions at once in ONE, a feat few fighters in any organisation have managed. The timing is no accident. Lee defends his ONE lightweight title against submission-grappling champion Tye Ruotolo on Friday at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, headlining ONE's The Inner Circle 37. Ruotolo has only two professional MMA fights behind him, but he is one of the best grapplers alive, and the bout is a genuine test. Lee's message to Makhachev, delivered hours before that fight, reads like a man already looking past his next opponent and toward the biggest name in the sport. Cross-promotional fights between the UFC and ONE have never happened, and there is no sign of one being negotiated. That has not stopped fighters from calling for them. Makhachev, the UFC's pound-for-pound number one, has built his reputation on suffocating wrestling and a calm that has broken better strikers than most. Lee's argument is that his own wrestling, his finishing instinct and his two-division pedigree would be the difference. It is the kind of claim that sounds outrageous until you look at the record: 17 finishes in 18 wins, two belts, and a habit of walking through people. For now it is words, and words are cheap in fight week. But Lee's callout lands in a week when the combat sports calendar is crowded — UFC Vegas 124 on Saturday, Zuffa Boxing in London, ONE running three shows in Bangkok on Friday — and it has given the sport its loudest talking point. If Lee beats Ruotolo and keeps both belts, the question will not go away. The only way to answer it is a fight that has never happened, between two champions who have never shared a cage.