Christian Lee sympathizes with the emotional turmoil that Cyrill Gane and Tom Aspinall undoubtedly faced after their fight ended after being poked in the eye at UFC 321. Because he endured exactly the same thing.
After a two-year layoff due to a family tragedy, Lee finally returned to ONE Championship last December after spending time coaching his younger brother in preparation for his professional debut, defending his lightweight title against Alibeg Raslov. Lee, who had certainly gotten rid of the ring rust early on, finally started to find his rhythm in the second round, when he accidentally fouled Rasulov with his own eye poke.
As time passed, Rasulov was unable to recover enough to continue, and the match was stopped before a no-contest could be declared. Lee was understandably disappointed, but could not blame Rasulov, as the mistake that led to the foul, intentional or not, was his own.
“It’s tough,” Lee told MMA Fighting. “You can’t really judge a player who doesn’t want to continue the fight after being poked in the eye, because you don’t know the severity of it. Sometimes it looks like it’s a shallow poke in the eye, but it’s actually a retinal injury. It’s much worse than it looks. I’m not going to criticize an opponent for stopping after being poked in the eye.”
The same applies to aspinals. This was after he was hit in the eye at the end of the opening round in his match with Gane, resulting in a stoppage and a no-contest.
Aspinall then faced hostile criticism that he should have continued somehow, despite repeatedly stating that he had no vision in one eye.
Lee admits that he would probably try to push through an injury sustained during a fight, even if he got poked in the eye, but that doesn’t mean he blames other fighters who choose not to do the same.
“It’s not a question of toughness because we all know how tough Tom Aspinall is,” Lee said. “If you feel like you can’t perform to the best of your ability after you get poked in the eye, I think that’s why fighters choose a no contest. Some fighters are just crazy, but they don’t care. Even if they lose one eye, they’ll keep fighting. That’s how I feel about it.”
“I keep fighting with one eye. I hope it doesn’t happen, but there’s nothing stopping me from finishing the fight. But it depends on who you are as a fighter. There’s a lot of different competitors out there. It’s a shame for the fight to end with one eye.”
As for his own situation, Lee has no ill will towards Rasulov and just hopes that the rematch against Japan at ONE 173 on Saturday will settle the issue.
“It happens,” Lee said. “I don’t pass any judgment on him for that. I’m angry with the result, the way the fight ended, but I’m not angry with my opponent. When it comes down to it, there’s no bad blood. There’s nothing personal about this rematch. I think it’s going to be a continuation of the last fight.”
In fact, Lee is feeling even better heading into this rematch and hopes it shows in his performance.
Although he is enduring another long layoff heading into this fight, Lee is confident he is ready to finish what he started with Rasulov some 11 months ago.
“I feel a lot better going into this game than I did the first time,” Lee said. “For the first game, we were ready. But we also had a setback where the card got postponed for four weeks. So we got an extension and we had a nine-week camp for that game, but the four-week extension pushed us back to a 13-week camp. That led to a lot of preparation for the last game.”
“Everything is going well this time around. I feel physically stronger. I feel like I’ve grown as a fighter from last year to this year. I’m excited. I definitely feel ready.”