By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter
ONE Championship world lightweight champion Christian “The Warrior” Lee made short work of challenger Timofey Nastyukhin in their title fight on Thursday in Singapore.
Headlining “ONE on TNT II,” Mr. Lee, 22, representing Singapore and the United States, successfully defended his title after finishing Russian Nastyukhin’s challenege in less than two minutes in the opening round by way of technical knockout (punches).
After a brief feeling-out period, Mr. Lee picked up the pace, landing a solid counter left hand that sent his opponent down to the canvas.
Mr. Nastyukhin tried to fend off the barrage of follow-up punches by the champion but to no avail before the referee stepped in to stop the contest at the 1:13 mark of the first round.
It was the second successful defense of Mr. Lee of the title he won in 2019 over Japanese mixed martial arts legend Shinya Aoki.
He improved to 15 wins as opposed to three losses while Mr. Nastyukhin saw his two-fight win streak halted and his record drop to 14-5.
In the co-main event, meanwhile, American Janet Todd stopped Norway’s Anna Line Hogstad in the third round of their atomweight muay thai collision.
Ms. Todd, the reigning ONE atomweight kickboxing champion, gave her push to become a two-sport world champ a favor with the impressive win.
She was dominating her opponent in the previous two rounds before unleashing a quick kick to the body of Ms. Hogstad, who instantly crumbled in pain after.
The referee gave her the 10-count before deciding to wave off the fight after it became obvious Ms. Hogstad could not continue.
After the fight, Ms. Todd brought forth the possibility of fighting former muay thai champion Stamp Fairtex anew.
“ONE on TNT II” was part of the series of the breakthrough offering of ONE Championship, which sees its fights shown digitally and on television on prime time in the United States.
Next will be the third installment on April 22, headlined by the bantamweight battle between Brazilian John Lineker and American Troy Worthen.