Debate about the judging during Ok Rae Yoon’s first fight with Christian Lee continues to rage. The controversial decision victory saw the Korean crowned the ONE Championship lightweight king but many, including the former champion, still do not accept that verdict.
It sounds like the Korean is bored of it as head heads into their ONE 160 headliner this Friday. He is looking to put an end to this rivalry once and for all and thinks that beating Lee decisively would be the best possible way to do that,
“I’m going to dominate this bout. I’m going to dominate this week. That’s going to be 2-0 for me. So Christian Lee won’t have any reason to have a third bout against me,” he told media yesterday.
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Complicated answer
Lee wants to finish the Korean decisively so as to avoid any controversy. But Yoon points out that his opponent said exactly the same thing before their first fight,
“He said the same thing before our last bout, he said he’d finish me early. Every MMA athlete thinks the same thing, of course we all want to finish the bout as early as possible. But what happened in our last bout?”
The answer to the question is simple yet extremely complicated. The records will show that the Korean won the fight but Lee appeared to be the aggressor throughout with Yon looking a little reluctant to engage.
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History repeating
There is no doubt that the aggressive approach took its toll on Lee who faded down the stretch. Yon can see the exact same thing happening in Friday’s rematch,
“If he tries all those (same moves) he’ll just get tired again. I see the same picture happening again.”
That might be bad news for the judges if they were hoping for a quiet, controversy free evening. Any fans hoping to see a more aggressive approach from Yon are likely to be frustrated as he is planning to employ another defensive strategy,
“His strength is his wrestling and grappling but my strength, my wrestling defense, is bigger than his strength. That’s the reason why I’m winning this fight and that’s why I won our first match because I can defend his biggest strengths. That’s how it’s going to go again.”
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Very frustrated
But he seems to think that attack might turn out to be the best form of defence. Yoon believes that taking the fight to Lee could well turn out to be the best way to frustrate him.
“For this bout I will be very aggressive, I will show the offensive side of me. I’m going to be very, very aggressive and Christian Lee will be very frustrated with my offense.”
Lee was left very frustrated after the first fight. Yon would like to leave his opponent in a similar state of mind on Friday and it will be interesting to see whether the Korean can implement his strategy as effectively as he did last time around.
