Former UFC Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez has suffered an injury and has been pulled from the One Lightweight World Grand Prix Finals against Saygid Guysen Arslanaliev, replacing Alvarez is going to be One Lightweight Champion Christian Lee.
One CEO Chatri Sityodtong made the announcement via Twitter:
NEWS ALERT: Eddie Alvarez has pulled out of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix due to injury. ONE Lightweight World Champion Christian Lee has agreed to step into the finals of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix to face Saygid Arslanaliev on Oct 13 in Tokyo at ONE: Century!!!
— Chatri Sityodtong (@yodchatri) September 26, 2019
Arslanaliev (8-1-0) punched his ticket to the finals of the grand prix with a pair of first round knockout wins over Ev Ting and Amir Khan. Arslanaliev will enter the bout while in the midst of a four fight winning streak and he hasn’t been defeated in nearly three years. Arslanaliev has competed a total of nine times as a professional MMA fighter and none of those bouts went the distance.
Lee (12-3-0) is competing for the first time in the grand prix and is the brother of One Women’s Atomweight Champion Angela Lee. Lee won the One Lightweight Championship a few months back at One Championship: Enter The Dragon, defeating Shinya Aoki by second round TKO. Lee has competed fifteen times as a professional MMA fighter and just one of those encounters went the distance.
One Championship Century: Part One takes place on Sunday, October 13 from the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan with Angela Lee and Jing Na Xiong headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on TNT.
