ONE Welterweight World Champion Kiamrian “Brazen” Abbasov has a simple message for ONE Lightweight World Champion Christian “The Warrior” Lee as the latter moves up a weight class to face him.
Abbasov defends his welterweight strap against Lee in the main event of ONE Fight Night 4 this Saturday morning, November 19, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and the Kyrgyz-Russian expects his foe to crumble under the pressure.
“A lot of things will go off plan for him. Naturally, he will complain to his dad or coach: ‘Coach, big problem. Kiamrian Abbasov is a big problem. Please, stop the fight. Stop the fight,’” Abbasov told ONEFC.com.
“When the cage is closed, neither the media nor his family will help him. It will be only [me and him] with all his big problems because of his desire to move up to my division.”
“I will whisper to his ear during the fight: ‘Stay in your lightweight division.’”
A lot of people feel that the fight will come down to Abbasov’s power and size and Lee’s speed and agility, though it’s something that the Novorosfight representative shrugged off.
While he’s bigger in size, he reiterates that it doesn’t automatically mean that he’s going to be slower than his opponent on that night, as he’s been working on his movement for this camp.
“How will I deal with his speed and explosive technique? Well, I’ll tell him I’m not a slow guy, either. He will have to reach me first. So I work at all aspects, whether it’s speed, power, or quickness. So I don’t consider it an issue that he’s fast or something,” he said.
“If he moved up two divisions, then we could talk about his speed, but our weight difference is not that big, so I don’t think it will pose a problem.”
In fact, he believes that moving up might even pose some issues for Lee, who’s spent most of his career as a lightweight and featherweight.
Sure, on paper Lee might look like the faster, quicker, and more agile guy, but at the end of the day it’s Abbasov who will be at home in this clash.
“He might face issues after he gains weight and will no longer be an explosive fighter. I think he has a lot of work to do in terms of physique and to try and overcome me physically. This is a different weight category with very different rules,” he said.
In the meantime, tickets for ONE Fight Night 5 and ONE 164: Pacio vs. Brooks at the Mall of Asia Arena on December 3 are available at https://linktr.ee/ONEPH.
Also, catch “Globe Presents ONE Warrior Series Philippines” every Sunday night on GTV, the ONE Super App, and watch.onefc.com. Weekly replays air on Tap Go, ONE Championship Philippines Facebook, and ONE Championship’s official YouTube channel.