“The Werewolf” Wian Jan Ping showed courage on Friday, 21 April, when he jumped up in weight and accepted a short-notice opportunity to clash with 18-year-old prodigy Christian “The Warrior” Lee at ONE: KINGS OF DESTINY.
Ultimately, the Singaporean teenage sensation overwhelmed the durable Chinese veteran en route to a first-round TKO victory, much to the delight of the crowd in Manila’s Mall Of Asia Arena. Lee’s explosive ground strikes led to a stoppage win late in the opening round, after Lee spent most of the period patiently calculating his moves.
Wan fought like a man with nothing to lose, winging a heavy overhand right time and time again, to go along with leg kicks as he stalked the Evolve MMA product. For most of the first round, Lee backed away and moved laterally to deftly get away from his rival’s attacks.
The Shanghai, China, resident looked to drag Lee into a slug fest, using lots of head feints and even taunts to move the Singaporean teen away from his own game plan. Lee showed poise, however, and refused to engage on his opponent’s terms.
When the moment suited him, Lee stormed in with a clean one-two punch combination that connected on Wan, then changed levels and landed a takedown straight into the side mount.
It was not long before Lee solidified that position, and began to shoot down elbows, punches, and knees on the head of Wan. The referee had seen enough, and was forced to step in and call the fight with 45 seconds left in the period.
Eight months removed from his loss to featherweight contender Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen, Lee gets back on the winning track and pushes his record to 6-1. The defeat is Wan’s second straight, and dips his mark to 6-4 overall.
