Christian Lee still has a tough time looking at his record and seeing a loss next to Edward Kelly’s name from their first fight in September 2018.
On that night, Lee was dominating the fight but he landed an illegal suplex that dumped Kelly on his head and, when he was unable to continue, the 20 year old mixed martial arts prodigy was disqualified.
Obviously, Lee doesn’t blame Kelly for the loss nor does he feel a need to lash out against the rules in ONE Championship but it still doesn’t sit well with him that there is now a permanent blot on his record,
“It will forever show that Edward Kelly has a win over me and I’m not OK with that. That’s why this rematch means so much to me,” he said.
A score to settle
That’s why Lee is anxious to settle the score when he meets Kelly for a second time at ONE: ‘Eternal Glory’ this Saturday in Jakarta.
“I’m looking forward to going in there and erasing that disqualification loss,” Lee said ahead of his fight.
“I was very sick after that match. I feel absolutely in my heart that I won the fight by TKO but it is what it is. You can’t change that. Now I’m just looking to rewrite the story and finish him this time.”
Lee knows that after two minutes in the cage together the last time that Kelly was already in serious trouble. So while he was anxious to accept this rematch the Singaporean/Korean featherweight suspects his opponent wasn’t quite as keen,
“I mean this with no disrespect but I don’t feel that he would be as eager for the rematch as I am. I definitely jumped as soon as they gave me the call. I’m not going to say anything bad because I respect Edward Kelly a lot. He’s a great fighter. I am just looking forward to going in there and putting on a show.” Lee said.
No surprises
Lee knows that Kelly could potentially approach the rematch with a different strategy considering how the first fight ended but he doubts whether the veteran fighter can have somehow reinvented the wheel over the past four months,
“The thing is I really didn’t see anything new in his game that we didn’t already expect, that we didn’t already train for,” Lee said.
“I know that Edward is going to be training extremely hard for this match but at the end of the day I feel he is still going to be the same fighter and the outcome is still going to be the same.”
Cold and calculated
As excited as he might be to avenge that prior defeat, Lee promises that emotions won’t get the better of him when he clashes with Kelly this Saturday in Indonesia.
Lee’s anticipation may be driving him towards this rematch but once he steps into the cage, he can completely transform into an ice cold assassin ready to finish Kelly without a second though about how their first fight ended.
“I plan on leaving all emotions outside the cage,” Lee said.
“When I go in there, I’m going to treat it like any other fight. I’m going to go out there and execute my game plan and I plan on finishing him in the first round.”
A busy year
If all goes well against Kelly this month Lee hopes to stay very active and very busy in 2019. Competing in the first month of the year gives him an opportunity to get multiple fights in and that is exactly what the 20 year old wants to do.
The end goal is always the same; to become the featherweight champion but more than anything Lee just wants to fight as much as possible while taking out every contender ONE Championship puts in his path.
“For me, it’s just about carrying the momentum over from 2018,” Lee explained.
“I want to stay busy. I know that Martin (Nguyen) is going to be fighting and defending his belt soon. I’m not going to sit on the sidelines waiting and demanding a title shot. I’m going to keep fighting, keep taking out big names, whoever ONE Championship throws at me. I’ll be ready for them.”
