Christian Lee vs Timofey Nastyukhin for ONE lightweight title on April 14
Christian Lee vs Timofey Nastyukhin compete for the ONE lightweight belt and it headlines the second ONE Championship card on TNT. The ONE on TNT series starts April 7th but Lee vs Nastyukhin headlines the April 14th card.
Turner Sports will be spotlighting ONE during a multi-event series. It’s set to broadcast throughout April during a primetime slot in the United States.
ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced this programming partnership at a press conference earlier today.
Christian Lee vs Timofey Nastyukhin
Christian Lee enters this bout as the defending lightweight champion while Timofey Nastyukhin is in the title contender role for this ONE contest.
Lee rides a five-fight win streak heading into this bout. But it’s his last few outings that have propelled him to really ascend to that next tier.
Christian Lee’s last three fights have seen him capture the top distinction in his division, win the lightweight grand prix championship, and defend his lineal ONE title.
The Warrior took the gold from the legendary Shinya Aoki via strikes in the second round of their May 2019 passing of the torch. Lee then stepped in to wrest the tournament championship from Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev via unanimous decision and scored a first-round knockout to defend his crown when he fought Iuri Lapicus in October.
Nastyukhin enters this title bid on the heels of back to back victories. He halted Eddie Alvarez via first-round knockout in March 2019 and defeated Pieter Buist via unanimous decision in November.
This fight holds great value in different respects for both competitors.
For Lee, it represents a chance to clear out the ONE lightweight division. He has already run through most of the weight class’ top five as of this juncture.
Timofey Nastyukhin’s motivation is to obviously capture gold and etch his name in ONE Championship history. He is as dangerous and deserving of a title shot as anyone in that ONE divisional hierarchy.
Who do you think secures the victory when Christian Lee vs Timofey Nastyukhin goes down?
