It’s been over two years since Christian Lee last fought, raising numerous questions about whether he would ever compete again following the tragic death of his sister, Victoria Lee.
The now 26-year-old two-division ONE Championship champion was devastated, like the rest of his family, after Victoria took her own life in December 2022. The tragedy sent shockwaves through the entire fight world, fundamentally altering the Lee family forever.
In the aftermath of Victoria’s death, former ONE strawweight champion Angela Lee decided to retire from competition to focus on a nonprofit organization she launched that centers on mental health. The Lee family’s martial arts gym permanently closed down, and Christian took a long hiatus from the sport.
“Initially, of course, I didn’t want to do anything,” Lee told MMA Fighting. “I closed my gym down. I wasn’t thinking about fighting. But there came a point in time where I was ready to reopen the gym again, and I was also ready to get back to work.”
“For me, the line of work I chose is fighting. I trained my whole life, committed my whole life up until now to being a professional fighter. So for me, it was just time to get back to work, time to feed my family again. I never planned on retiring from this sport.”
While the Lee family gym remains closed, Christian has opened his own facility in Hawaii. However, that endeavor was initially a labor of love for the first few months, as he primarily worked alongside his younger brother, Adrian Lee, while preparing to transition into MMA.
ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong admitted he had reservations about bringing Adrian into the fold after Victoria’s tragic death but ultimately decided to sign the teenage prospect. Christian took it upon himself to ensure Adrian had every resource available, especially an older brother who dedicated time away from his own fight career to support him.
“I was happy to shift the focus over to my brother,” Lee said. “He was able to get his first two wins in that time. For me, I’m not just focused on my career anymore. I’m also focused on building his as well.”
“Getting back into the gym, for a long period of time, it was just me and my brother, one-on-one, the two of us. I was focused on training him and building him up. In that short amount of time, we had like six months of just training one-on-one with each other. He improved so quickly. He really went from a young high school kid to a true professional fighter.”
Now, as he prepares to resume his own career on Friday with a welterweight title defense against Alibeg Rasulov in Thailand, Lee is ready to get back to work.
Lee acknowledges the time off was necessary but also beneficial since he had been fighting non-stop since first signing with ONE at just 16 years old.
A decade later, Lee is a two-division champion and arguably the top pound-for-pound fighter in the organization. However, those accomplishments were largely due to the relentless schedule he maintained over the years.
“The time off was good mentally and physically,” Lee said. “When you put so much time in—10 years in this sport—it definitely takes a toll on you. At 26, in some ways, I feel like an old man because I started my career so young.”
“Now we have our gym, Prodigy Training Center, up and running, and we’ve built our fight team. There are many talented fighters at Prodigy that will be on the big stage as well, and now in the room, I’m the old guy. It’s funny because I was always the youngest guy in the room, but now, with my gym open and my fight team built, I’m the old guy in the room.”
It’s hard to picture anyone feeling old at 26, but Lee has embraced being the elder statesman in his gym. He already took on the role of coach and mentor to his younger brother, and now he’s passing on that knowledge to the next generation of martial artists following in his footsteps.
“It’s definitely a lot of work,” Lee said. “But I feel like I’m at a time in my life where this is the time to work the hardest that I’ve ever worked, and I’m prepared to put in all the hours. I used to train at 9 a.m. in the morning, but I shifted it to start at 5:30 a.m. So I wake up every day at 4:30 a.m., get morning training from like 5:30 to 9. Then I go back home to spend time with my wife and kids, still having that family time, and then I’m back in the gym working with the kids, my adult classes, and all my fighters and students.”
“It’s a busy day. It starts very early in the morning. Sometimes my family and I end up eating dinner at 9 p.m. at night, but it feels good to work hard and to be able to give back at the same time.”
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