Christian Lee is back. The two-division ONE champion defends his lightweight MMA title against Tye Ruotolo in the main event of The Inner Circle 37 on Friday, November 6, at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok. The card runs in Asia primetime and streams for members on live.onefc.com.
One correction before anything else, because the early chatter has been sloppy about it. Lee is defending the lightweight belt here, per ONE’s own promotional material and Lee’s interview with Combat Press. The welterweight in this fight belongs to Ruotolo, who holds ONE’s welterweight submission grappling title. A win would make the 23-year-old the first ONE fighter to hold world titles in both submission grappling and MMA.
The Family Part
This one comes with a grudge attached. Ruotolo submitted Adrian Lee, Christian’s younger brother, last year, handing him the first loss of his pro MMA career. Ruotolo is 2-0 in MMA, and counting his nine submission grappling wins he sits at 11-0 across disciplines in ONE. His twin, Kade, is also climbing in MMA and faces former lightweight champ Ok Rae Yoon at ONE Fight Night 50 on December 18. Lee has fought Ok twice, and when Combat Press asked about the possibility of fighting both twins, he answered: “I’m excited to take them both out.”
Lee did not sound like a man worried about the grappling. “Man, I’m going to destroy this guy,” he told Dan Kuhl of Combat Press. “I plan to beat him down for five rounds, but I could see it ending in the first.”
His read on Ruotolo is specific, and it’s a good one. He thinks Ruotolo’s striking looks better than it is because opponents spend the opening minutes terrified of the takedown. “He doesn’t have that depth in the striking that you can only really gain through experience,” Lee said. The plan is to stay outside, make Ruotolo chase, and drag him into exchanges where 2-0 meets a decade of top-level MMA. “And I think it is going to end up exposing his real amateur skill set in striking,” he said.
The Rasulov Tape
Ruotolo’s camp will study Lee’s last fight, the rematch with Alibeg Rasulov, where Lee gave up an early takedown before finishing with strikes in Round 2. Lee told Combat Press the position never felt dangerous. “It felt like he was just trying to hold on tight to my leg,” he said. Camp stayed home at Prodigy Training Center in Hawaii, with a striking coach flown in from Japan to hold mitts.
My take: Lee is right about the striking and slightly too relaxed about that Rasulov takedown. Rasulov holding a leg and Ruotolo holding a leg are two very different problems, because Ruotolo will be climbing to the back or hunting a heel while Lee is “staying calm.” Still, a fighter in his third pro bout has to win the scramble every single time, and Lee only needs to survive the first one with his legs intact. If Lee keeps his base and makes Ruotolo shoot from distance, the takedowns get telegraphed and the gas tank starts to matter by Round 3. I’m taking Lee by TKO in the middle rounds, and I’ll be watching his feet on the first shot, because that’s where Ruotolo wins this if he wins it.
