ONE Championship has unveiled a historic World Title showdown for The Inner Circle 37. There, reigning two-division ONE World Champion Christian Lee will defend his lightweight MMA gold against reigning ONE Welterweight Submission Grappling World Champion Tye Ruotolo.
These two will collide live on Friday, November 6, from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, and the fight airs via live.onefc.com. Christian Lee, representing Singapore and America, stands as one of the greatest mixed martial artists the sport has ever produced.
Holding a ONE record of 18-4, with 17 of those victories coming via finish, Lee has been a fixture of the promotion since debuting at just 17 years old in 2015. He first claimed lightweight gold in May 2019 to become the youngest male MMA World Champion in ONE history.
Since then, Lee has defended his crown multiple times against elite competition, briefly losing the title to South Korea’s Ok Rae Yoon before reclaiming it in a rematch.
In his most recent title defense last year, Lee successfully retained his belt against Alibeg Rasulov in a rematch. He currently holds ONE Championship records for most career wins with 18, most finishes with 17, and most first-round finishes with 11.
Standing across from him is the 23-year-old Ruotolo, twin brother of reigning ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Champion Kade Ruotolo, who also remains undefeated in MMA. Tye holds a career BJJ record of 37-12 and a perfect 2-0 mark in the MMA competition.
After dominating the submission grappling world, claiming and repeatedly defending the belt since his 2022 debut, Ruotolo transitioned into MMA. His highly anticipated debut came against Christian’s younger brother Adrian Lee last year, submitting the young phenom in the second round via rear-naked choke for Lee’s first-ever career loss.
Ruotolo continued his impressive momentum roughly two and a half months later, putting away Shozo Isojima in under three minutes. Now, in just his third MMA contest, Ruotolo looks to make history by dethroning the elder Lee brother and claiming ONE Championship gold.