Another ONE Championship card, another controversial decision. This time the judges decided that Ok Rae Yoon had done enough to earn a unanimous decision win over Christian Lee when the majority of fans thought the champion had done enough to win.
Lee looked on the verge of submitting the Korean with a rear naked choke late in the second round. He also dropped Yoon with a right hand in the third round and seemed to be ahead on the scorecards at this stage.
There was not too much action in the last ten minutes but Lee finished the fight with a flurry, hurting Yoon with a right hand and then starting to unload. The Korean looked dangerous with his knees but never really did enough to suggest he was in a position to win the fight on the scorecards.
ROCKET RIGHT-HAND from Christian Lee! š @ChristianLeeMMA #ONERevolution #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/JxTMSBObWL
ā ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 24, 2021
Debatable decision
The three judgesĀ saw things differently, with Yoon taking a unanimous decision win. Afterwards Lee asked for the result to be reviewed and demanded an immediate rematch,
āI have a lot of respect for Ok Rae Yoon but I won that fight.ā
Given that Seo Hee Ham beat Denice Zamboanga in very similar circumstances at ONE: āEmpowerā and that result was not overturned Leeās appeals seems set to fall on death ears. However an immediate rematch seems like an obvious move for the promotion.
Lee falls toĀ 15-4 after losing for the first time since 2018 while Yoon improves to 16-3 and becomes the new lightweight champion.
āThe Legend Killerā DOES IT AGAIN š¤Æ Ok Rae Yoon š°š· dethrones Christian Lee to become the new ONE Lightweight World Champion! #ONERevolution #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/G2yFt7M1Ue
ā ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 24, 2021
Best of the rest
Earlier in the evening Joshua Pacio needed less than four minutes to defend his strawweight title. The champion had been out of action since the start of last year but showed no signs of ring rust as he stopped Yosuke Saruta with a barrage of punches.
It was the third meeting between the two strawweights and the second time Pacio has won by stoppage. He improves to 19-3 while his opponent drops to 21-10-3.
ONE: āRevolutionā, Singapore, September 24th
Ok Rae Yoon def. Christian Lee via Decision (Unanimous) (Wins lightweight title)
Joshua Pacio def. Yosuke Saruta via TKO (Punches) at 3:38 in R1 (Defends strawweight title)
Jae Woong Kim def. Martin Nguyen via KO (Punches) at 3:15 in R1
Anatoly Malykhin def. Amir Aliakbari via KO (Punches) at 2:57 in R1
Victoria Lee def. Victoria Souza via TKO (Punches) at 3:58 in R2
Lito Adiwang def. Getu Hexi via Decision (Unanimous)
Muay Thai: Taiki Naito def. Petchdam Gaiyanghadao via Decision (Split)
Marcus Almeida def. Anderson Silva via Submission (North-South Choke) at 2:55 in R1
Kickboxing: Petchtanong Banchamek def. Chenglong Zhang via Decision (Unanimous)
James Yang def. Roel Rosauro via TKO (Punches) at 2:00 R2
