ONE Championship ONE Championship 
When Christian “The Warrior” Lee returns from a two-year layoff to defend his ONE Lightweight MMA World Title in the main event of ONE Fight Night 26 on Prime Video, he’ll be proudly representing his new gym in Hawaii, Prodigy Training Center.
The two-division MMA titleholder is set to battle undefeated Turkish sensation Alibeg Rasulov live in U.S. primetime on Friday, December 6.
That bout will take place at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, and it will be Lee’s chance to remind fans around the world that he’s one of MMA’s best – and most entertaining – pound-for-pound athletes.
Plenty has changed since “The Warrior” last competed. Following the tragic passing of his younger sister, Victoria Lee, in late 2022, he decided to close the doors of the Lee family’s longtime gym, United MMA.
“The Warrior” continued to train behind the scenes, working closely with his younger brother, Adrian “The Phenom” Lee, who was preparing for his much-anticipated professional debut in ONE. At the same time, he was running a nonprofit organization that aimed to provide training and a safe space for area youths.
In order to keep that nonprofit funded, Lee decided to completely renovate and reopen the family gym, now called Prodigy Training Center. The 26-year-old told onefc.com:
“I had another nonprofit business. I opened it up and called it Prodigy Community Center. The goal was to basically take kids from after school, who can’t afford training, and give them a place before the classes to do their homework, to hang out, and then to train in the classes for free.
“And then have a ride home if they can’t get picked up by their parents. That was the main thing that drove everything.”
Prodigy Training Center is now rapidly growing, with hobbyist martial artists dabbling in striking and grappling, as well as up-and-coming amateur and professional fighters.
While he has big goals for both himself and the fighters he coaches, Lee said the primary motivation behind Prodigy Training Center remains giving back to his community:
“We’re building up the gym. We’re trying to grow all the classes and get it to a point where we can not only support everyone, all of the staff and the coaches that we have on board – but then immediately turn around and give back to the community in an even bigger way than helping the kids and adults who are already training, but doing some nonprofit community work, as well.”
Lee also finds personal motivation in the gym’s name. His late sister, Victoria, was nicknamed “The Prodigy” for her preternatural martial arts skills.
“The Warrior” is beyond proud that both he and his brother now wear the Prodigy Training Center logo in the world’s largest martial arts organization as a small but meaningful way to remember their sister:
“Obviously, the name came from my sister’s nickname, and it’s just a small tribute for her in the sense of, you know, we’re continuing to go to work and just have a piece of her remembrance with us.
“It’s nice to see everyone walking around in the gym wearing Prodigy shirts and see Adrian going out there representing it. I’m looking forward to wearing it in my fights, as well. It’s a great meaning behind what we’re doing.”
Beyond the benevolent goals that Christian Lee has for Prodigy Training Center, he’s interested in developing a team of homegrown world-class fighters.
Leading that charge is his brother, Adrian Lee, who is now 2-0 in ONE and appears well on his way to international superstardom.
“The Warrior” said the students at Prodigy Training Center have been inspired by Adrian’s meteoric rise, and he hopes to keep the ball rolling for himself at ONE Fight Night 26:
“When Adrian and I go in there and compete and win, it shows them firsthand that the training and the skills that they’re learning every day really work.
“Leading up to Adrian’s fight, we covered a lot of the sequences that he did that led to the finish in classes. A lot of our students would say when we come back, ‘That’s exactly what you taught in class, and that’s what coach Adrian pulled off in his fight!’ I think it’s great.”
For his part, the elder Lee brother remains laser-focused on defending his gold against Alibeg Rasulov on December 6.
But when he’s not training, he’s coaching a group of athletes that he hopes will produce the next generation of ONE superstars:
“Not only in my fighting career, but in my coaching career, my goal is to see our fighters turn pro, do well, and then eventually make it into ONE Championship.
“And soon, we’ll have a whole team of Prodigy representing on one of the ONE cards.”
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