Ok Rae-yoon (32) expressed her will to return to the throne of mixed martial arts in Asia’s largest organization, ONE Championship.
“ONE Fight Night 10” will be held on May 6 (Korean time) at the First Bank Center (capacity: 6,500) in Broomfield, Colorado, USA. 1 in the official ranking of One Championship lightweight, Rae-yoon Ok will play an away match against former champion in Hawaii and the Philippines, Rowan Tynerness (33).
Ok Rae-yoon is a rematch after 253 days (8 months and 10 days) after losing the top due to a failure in the first defense of the title in August 2022. In an interview with the One Championship official website, he said, “If I prove my skills (against Tyner Ness, etc.), I think I am qualified to aim for the throne again.”스포츠토토
In 2021, Ok Rae-yoon defeated ▲ former featherweight champion Marat Gafurov (39, Russia) ▲ former UFC lightweight champion Eddy Alvarez (39, USA) ▲ lightweight and welterweight unified champion Christian Lee (25, USA/Canada) in turn to win the One Championship Lightweight He became the champion and reached the peak of his career 9 years after his debut in mixed martial arts.
Ok Rae-yoon’s first match as champion was the second match against Christian Lee (Lee Seung-ryong), a Korean fighter who wanted to regain the throne, after 337 days (11 months and 3 days), but was hit by a knee attack in the second round and was TKO.
“We lost in the last game, so we have to win 1 or 2 games first,” he said, “Christian Lee did a rematch right away. (Reacquisition of the right to challenge for the One Championship title) can be justified by adding 1 or 2 wins.”
The One Championship website also said, “Ok Rae-yoon wants a third match with Christian Lee. He would want to break the balance of his opponent’s 1 win 1 loss and recapture the lightweight throne,” he responded, saying he understood his feelings.
Of course, just because he was the previous champion, there is no guarantee that he will be able to rise to the top again. Ok Rae-yoon said, “The more important the match, the higher the level of the opponent, the more he learned that he had to pay more attention to his body care. He realized that even the smallest details matter if you want to compete with world class players,” he said, discussing the lessons he learned after losing to Christian Lee.
When Ok Rae-yoon said, “Until then, I played matches where I could cover up with my skills even if I was not in good condition,” I can feel that he highly praises Christian Lee, who defeated him and re-proven himself as the strongest lightweight in the One Championship.
‘ONE Fight Night 10’ is the first numbering (highest level) competition held in the United States by One Championship. The main card schedule will be adjusted so that the global OTT service ‘Amazon Prime Video’ can be watched live from 8:00 pm on May 5 in New York.