Rae Yoon Ok Seizes Belt After Outpointing Christian Lee at One: Revolution

The result of the latest One Championship headliner is already under protest by the losing party.

In the One: Revolution headliner on Friday morning, Christian Lee (15-4, 15-4 One) was dethroned by Rae Yoon Ok (16-3, 3-0 One), the only ranked opponent “The Warrior” had yet to face. The fight took a while before taking off, as both fighters respected each other’s power in the opening frames. Lee attempted several takedowns in the early going, pushing his opponent against the fence and dragging him on the canvas on multiple occasions. Ok strenuously resisted, never laying with his back flat on the mat, and he was to get back to his feet each time. When he did, he displayed sharp muay Thai skills with effective knees every time he bounced back. Lee did have Ok in a spot of danger in Round 2, when he snared the South Korean with a rear-naked choke, but he could not elicit a tap.

ROCKET RIGHT-HAND from Christian Lee! @ChristianLeeMMA #ONERevolution #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/JxTMSBObWL

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 24, 2021

In the third stanza, both contenders threw caution to the wind and started trading heavy leather. The Busan Team Mad export dropped Lee with a short right hook, and the defending champion answered back with a vicious right hand that knocked the challenger down a few seconds later. When they entered into the championship rounds, the Evolve MMA standout looked tired and continued to take damage, but Ok adopted a wait-and-see approach that allowed Lee to recover each time Lee seemed to be hurt. In the last 30 seconds of the final round, “The Warrior” blitzed forward with a wild flurry of punches that rocked Ok, and the challenger managed to hold on to the end of the fight. The last effort for Lee was unsuccessful in swaying the judges in his favor, as all three cageside scorers sided with Ok. In addition to capturing the championship, the Korean won his fifth fight in a row. In his losing post-fight interview, Lee challenged the result and demanded that the One Championship “Competition Committee” overturn his loss.

Mehdi Zatout is all smiles after getting ROCKED by Capitan! #ONERevolution #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/5moUVzCwQe

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 24, 2021

Capitan Petchyindee Academy notched his first kickboxing bantamweight championship defense against Mehdi Zatout in the co-main event. The French challenger’s early confidence diminished as the fight went on, as Capitan tempered Zatout’s aggression with his fast and accurate striking. In the third frame, the Thai champion nearly finished the fight with a barrage of brutal blows, but Zatout showed heart and survived to reach the championship rounds. From Round 4 onward, Capitan controlled his opponent from afar and dictated the pace, but the Frenchman proved tough as he made it to the final bell. The judges’ consensus was unanimous for Capitan, who took home a well-deserved decision victory.

In the third championship skirmish on the bill, the Lakay La Trinidad Gym’s product Joshua Pacio (19-3, 11-3 One) successfully defended his title for the third time by putting long-time rival Yosuke Saruta (21-10-3, 3-2 One) away in the first round. “The Passion” blindsided his 34-year-old opponent with a right hand that dropped Saruta, and when Saruta sprang back up, Pacio was on him with a left hand that sent him crashing to the floor. The 25-year-old Filipino finished the job with unanswered ground-and-pound shots, forcing the referee stoppage at 3:38 in the opening frame, and putting a stamp on his first trilogy.

Elsewhere, Jae Woong Kim (12-5, 3-1 One) smashed former divisional titleholder Martin Nguyen (13-5, 10-5 One) in the first round with a clean right hand, following up with a series of punches that put Nguyen to sleep at 3:15 in their One featherweight fight; Anatoliy Malykhin (9-0, 2-0 One) laid waste to Rizin Fighting Federation vet Amir Aliakbari (10-3, 0-2 One) with a devastating right overhand-left hook combination that forced referee intervention at 2:57 of the first period at heavyweight; in a clash in the One’s atomweight division, 17-year-old upstart Victoria Lee (3-0, 3-0 One) overwhelmed Victoria Souza (5-1, 0-1 One) on the canvas before unleashing a series of punches that halted the contest at 3:58 in the second stanza.

In the featured fight on the preliminary card, Lito Adiwang (13-3, 7-1 One) upended Getu Hexi (9-4, 3-2 One) by decision in their One strawweight bout. Prior to that, Taiki Naito edged former kickboxing flyweight titleholder Petchdam Gaiyanghadao by narrow split decision in a One flyweight muay Thai affair; multiple-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu heavyweight champion Marcus Almeida (1-0, 1-0 One) made a smooth transition to mixed martial arts after submitting Anderson “Braddock” Silva (3-2, 0-1 One) with a north-south choke at 2:55 in the opening frame; Petchtanong Banchamek took a unanimous decision victory over Chenglong Zhang in a 145-pound kickboxing encounter; the night began in the One featherweight division as AMC Pankration product James Yang (1-0, 1-0 One) made his successful pro debut by stopping Roel Rosauro (5-4, 1-3 One) with punches two minutes into Round 2.