Christian Lee would be the best-equipped combatant out there to best Islam Makhachev in a mixed martial arts contest, according to a Canadian champion who previously earned statement wins in ONE Championship. The referenced fighter is James Nakashima, who is currently the Unified MMA lightweight champ after recently winning gold on Canada’s premier regional show.
Nakashima has also been training with standout ONE fighters like Christian Lee and Adrian Lee in recent times. When mentioning his time working with ONE Championship royalty and what he has gleaned honing skills with such high-level mixed martial artists, Nakashima said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, the dad Ken [Lee] connected me with Christian like two years ago and they have flown me out there a couple times to; I live in Austin, Texas, but they have flown me out there a couple times to help Christian with his camps. Even Adrian just fought like a couple weeks ago and they were trying to get me out there to help him. So yeah, I have a really strong connection with the family. Like I’ve spent two months out there.”
“Every time I go out there; I’ve spent about a month out there in Hawaii but it seems like I’ve known them guys for forever. It’s just a really high level family, really high level gym.”
Christian Lee could hang with Islam Makhachev, Adrian Lee touted as “absolute monster”
As he further discussed the rarefied air that the multi-division ONE Championship titleholder is in while also shouting out Christian’s surging prospect brother Adrian Lee, James Nakashima continued [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Christian [Lee] is the best MMA fighter I’ve ever trained with. I think if anybody could mess with Islam [Makhachev], I think Christian could hang with him. Yeah, I’ve learned a tremendous amount training with [him], getting to know the dad. Me and Christian have developed a relationship. Me and Adrian, I love that kid. He’s an animal, too.”
“He’s 19 years old. He’s going to be; that Adrian Lee versus Tye Ruotolo fight. I think that was the greatest pro debut in the history of MMA that Tye displayed. Because Adrian Lee is an absolute monster and Tye Ruotolo is the truth. He’s the absolute truth. That was a great fight.”