ONE Championship: Ok Rae-yoon was ‘seeing two Christian Lees’ after breaking orbital in lightweight title win
- South Korean reveals he had double vision in Singapore following first-round injury
- Ok wants to face former champion Shinya Aoki to ‘become a true legend killer’
Ok Rae-yoon shocked the MMA world when he beat Christian Lee by unanimous decision last month to claim the ONE Championship lightweight title.
“Christian Lee was on my back and hit me with a light knee,” Ok (16-3) told the Post. “I wasn’t damaged at all or hurt. But as soon as I got hit with that I saw everything foggy. Nothing was clear. I saw two Christian Lees in there.
“I was kinda wondering what this is because in my whole experience as a professional MMA fighter I never hurt my eye. And I never [had] my orbital bone broken, even during training.
“I was just focusing on trying to see Christian Lee more clear, that’s why I was touching my eye. But until the end my left eye wasn’t clear. I kept seeing double vision. That’s why I had trouble getting my distance and the biggest trouble was checking Christian Lee’s right hand. I couldn’t see that clearly. That’s why the fight was a bit trickier than I thought, it was all because of the vision.”
Thanh Le agrees with Christian, Angela Lee on ONE title loss
After a few consultations with doctors in Singapore and South Korea, “Legend Killer” was told he had also broken the tip of his nose.
“For the orbital bone injury the doctors all advised surgery is the best way to cure it completely,” Ok said. “But because of my job, some of the doctors told me it’s better to just let it naturally heal because there’s always a chance it can get broken again. And then it’s better to just not get surgery because it’s not really that serious.
“Luckily it’s not the outside part of the orbital bone that was broken. It was the inner part and it wasn’t broken so big. I decided not to take the surgery for now and see for two to three months. From there I will decide again.”
With letting his wounds heal now top of his list of priorities, Ok is unlikely to return to the cage for his first title defence until early 2022.
The immediate rematch with Lee is likely, but nothing is set in stone after an incredible debut year in ONE that also saw him beat former featherweight champ Marat Gafurov and former UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez.
“People have been calling me ‘Legend Killer’ after I beat those three guys,” Ok said. “For me, I believe to become a true legend killer I’m going to have to beat Shinya Aoki, who’s another legend in the lightweight division.
“So in my head, I’m thinking about a match-up against Shinya. But I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future so whoever ONE Championship puts in front of me I’ll be there.”
