Christian Lee is the reigning ONE Championship titleholder in two weight classes, the same ones where Islam Makhachev has won belts in the UFC, and he’s confident in his chances against Makhachev if ever given the opportunity.
Lee defends his welterweight title Friday in Thailand, where he battles jiu-jitsu wizard Tye Ruotolo in the main event of The Inner Circle 37. Five years after saying he was the No. 1 lightweight in the world, topping even Khabib Nurmagomedov, Lee now puts himself over Nurmagomedov’s
teammate and friend.
“I feel very confident that I’m the best fighter in the world across any organization,” Lee told MMA Fighting. “My goal, if I could choose one fight, would be to fight Islam right now. I’ll go for the welterweight belt. He’s a double champ, lightweight and welterweight, just like me but in the UFC, and he’s proven. He’s fought everyone, but he’s only fought everyone in the UFC. He hasn’t fought people outside. So if I could line up a cross-promotional fight, I would want the Islam welterweight fight right now.”
Makhachev has only lost once in MMA, a knockout defeat to Adriano Martins in 2016. Since then, the Russian star has won 17 straight fights, establishing a new record for most consecutive victories in the UFC. Lee, on the other hand, has only tasted defeated once in his past 11 fights under the ONE banner, knocking out all but one of his opponents.
The secret to beat a legend like Makhachev, according to Lee, is to do to him what he’s used to doing against others.
“Take the fight to him,” Lee said. “I feel like I can catch him on the feet. I feel like I can take him down, dominate him, do everything that he does to other people. I feel like I have a different style, different skillset, and I would really love to show that one day.”
“I think that they are different types of fighters,” he said when asked if Makhachev is a better fighter than Nurmagomedov. “I don’t think that it’s fair to say that Islam is better than Khabib because Khabib retired because of a promise he made to his father. You have to respect that and know that he cut his own career short. He could have went on to defend his belt. He could have had a much more extensive career, but he did that based on his honor. So you gotta respect that. And with Islam, he’s his brother, his training partner over the years.
“Now I’m sure that he’s different because he’s still competitive, he’s still active, but growing up, Khabib was always the big bro, he was always the guy. They’re both amazing fighters, lots of respect to both of them, but right now, Islam is the only one in the works, so he would be the guy I’m calling for [laughs].”
Lee’s upcoming challenge is an entirely different one. Ruotolo is a decorated jiu-jitsu competitor—and ONE grappling champion—who has only fought twice under MMA rules, winning both via submission. His first win just so happened to be against Lee’s brother, Adrian Lee. The younger Lee wasn’t at his best that night in September 2025, Christian claims, due to dealing with a back injury that prevented him from sparring. He still feels Adrian “had a great performance.”
“I feel like his match with Adrian, he was able to take Adrian down very early, bring it into his world. His best chance of winning was to do that,” Lee said. “I feel like on another night he could have won. But I feel like the improvements he’s made today, the version of a fighter that Adrian is today would beat Tye. I’m very confident in that. So I’m glad that I’ve been able to see—helping prepare Adrian for Tye, and then now preparing myself for Tye—I feel like I’m very familiar with his game, and I’m excited to see how our strategies and how our game plans line up when we get in there.”
Lee said “there’s no room for emotion” and it “would be foolish” to allow any additional feelings affect him going into this fight, as far as getting revenge for Ruotolo beating his younger brother. A win on Nov. 6 is all about getting the job done.
“The way that I fight, the way that I’m preparing to fight, I plan to knock him out cold or put him to sleep,” Lee said. “And either way, that’s going to be enough for me [laughs].”
Lee has trained with UFC superstar Max Holloway in Hawaii for his upcoming title defense and sees no secret in what to expect from Ruotolo come fight night.
“You could say that it’s easier to prepare for it in the sense that you know what to prepare for,” Lee said. “You know that he wants to grapple, his greatest strength is going to be grappling. I think he’s gonna try to land a strike, land a few punches on the way in just to engage in the grappling, but aside from that, I feel like you have to give him credit because he’s a very dangerous grappler. He’s proven that if he can bring it into the grappling world, he can do very well with almost anyone. I think the key for me is to show him the difference between MMA and jiu-jitsu, and to use my MMA experience to counter his jiu-jitsu experience.
“A lot of grapplers favor the ring because it’s similar to fighting in the open mat. Every jiu-jitsu competition is in open mat, they’re comfortable with that. And when you get close to the ropes, there’s no cage there, so you can reach your hands behind the ropes and you can get the body lock. There’s a lot of a lot more advantages. But thankfully for me, I’m not just a striker fighting a grappler in this matchup. I’ve been training MMA, I’ve been training jiu-jitsu my whole life and I don’t feel like there’s gonna be an advantage in the jiu-jitsu for Tye.”
