(James Goyder is the owner/editor of AsianMMA.com)
Christian Lee had to weather an early storm before stopping Kiamrian Abbasov in the fourth round to capture the ONE Championship welterweight title. He can now lay claim to two of the promotion’s titles but certainly did not have things all his own way at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Lee normally likes to make a fast start but it was Abbasov who came out swinging at ONE on Prime Video 4, putting the 24 year old on the back foot. He responded with a successful takedown attempt but the Kyrgyzstan native got back to his feet and promptly landed a devastating left hook.
Lee was dropped and although he managed to get back up again he was on unsteady feet. Abbasov started to tee off on the Hawaiian who somehow survived the onslaught and scored a late takedown.
After such an intense opening round the pace was understandably slower in the second. Lee got a takedown and started to throw elbows from mount but Abbasov reversed and stood back up.
At the start of the third round they traded low kicks as both men tried and failed to get the fight down. Lee seemed to be in the ascendancy at this stage with Abbasov unable to replicate the damage he had done in the first round.
They traded punches at the start of the fourth with Lee landing a solid knee. He then started to score with right low kicks to his opponent’s lower left leg, with Abbasov starting to lose mobility as a result.
With Ababsov backed up against the cage and dealing wit ha damaged left leg Lee started to unload with elbows. A lot were absorbed by his opponent’s guard but it allowed the Hawaiian to take the fight down.
From mount he continued to score with elbows although they weren’t all getting throw. He looked up at Herb Dean, imploring him to call off the contest and eventually the veteran referee obliged.
The finish came at the 4:20 mark and Lee improves to 16-4 while capturing a welterweight belt to add to his lightweight title. Abbasov, who narrowly missed weight and had already been stripped of the title, slips to 23-6.
Earlier in the evening Stephen Loman (17-2) scored the biggest win of his career at the expense of former bantamweight champion Bibiano Fernandes (24-6). He controlled the action with a combination of striking and takedowns that the Brazilian veteran had no answer for.
Fernandes made a slow start and Loman was able to capitalize by backing him up. Surprisingly it was the Filipino who looked to take the fight down.
The former champion tried to pick up the pace in the second round but couldn’t land a glove on Loman, The fight finished with the Filipino in top position throwing down punch after punch to leave the judges an extremely easy decision.
ONE on Prime Video 4 Results, Singapore, November 19th
- Christian Lee def. Kiamrian Abbasov via TKO (Elbows) at 4:20 of R4
- Muay Thai: Rodtang Jitmuangnon def. Joseph Lasiri via Decision (Unanimous)
- Stephen Loman def. Bibiano Fernandes via Decision (Unanimous)
- Muay Thai: Cosmo Alexandre def. Juan Cervantes via TKO (Knees and elbow) at 1:23 of R2
- Kim Jae Woong def. Kevin Belingon via TKO (Punches) at 2:33 of R1
- Muay Thai: Jonathan Haggerty def. Vladimir Kuzmin via Decision (Majority) at 3:00 of R3
- Ruslan Emilbek Uulu def. Isi Fitikefu via Decision (Split)
- Submission Grappling: Danielle Kelly via def. Mariia Molchanova via Submission (Rear-naked choke)at 2:15 of R1
- Muay Thai: Liam Nolan def. Eddie Abasolo via Decision (Unanimous)