Adrian Lee Turns Near-Disaster Into First-Round Hellfire At ONE Fight Night 40
The right hand that wobbled Adrian Lee mere seconds into his ONE Fight Night 40 comeback could have written a different story. Instead, the 19-year-old phenom used that early crisis to prove the most important lesson from his first career loss: composure beats panic every single time.
“I did get caught with that [punch], unfortunately. But at the end of the day, it’s a fight, and anything can happen,” Lee said after his devastating first-round TKO of Shozo Isojima at ONE Fight Night 40 inside Bangkok’s Lumpinee Stadium.
“After that shot, I wasn’t too hurt. I still had my senses on me, and I was still able to get my strike entry into my takedown. But yeah, it definitely caught me off guard.”
Caught off guard but not caught off balance. That distinction mattered when Lee shook off the Japanese veteran’s crisp one-two combination and immediately executed the gameplan – sharp combinations into a textbook double-leg takedown that changed everything.
What followed was systematic destruction. Lee sliced into mount and unleashed elbows and punches that forced the referee’s intervention at 2:56 of the opening frame, announcing his emphatic return to the winner’s column after September’s loss to Tye Ruotolo.
“That’s something we’ve been working on all camp. We always say we take whatever comes first, whether it’s TKO or submission. In this case, it was the TKO,” the Prodigy Training Center product explained. “I was glad one of my elbows had cut him on his forehead. So it was a great day in the office.”
Great days in the office rarely start with getting wobbled, but Lee’s response revealed something crucial about what the Ruotolo defeat had taught him. That loss wasn’t just a stumbling block – it became his blueprint for handling adversity.
“I feel like one thing that has definitely [improved] a lot was my composure in adversity. That’s something I’ve been working on constantly ever since that fight,” Lee said. “Even though I faced some adversity in this fight, I was able to stay composed, stick to the game plan, and execute it.”
The victory pushed the youngest member of the famed Lee family to 4-1 and validated his approach to growth. Isojima entered seeking his own redemption after back-to-back setbacks, but Saturday belonged to the Singaporean-American teenager who refused to let early danger derail his mission.
Lee offered respect to his opponent afterward. “At the end of the day, he’s a good fighter. He was 6-1, and I was glad to have this opportunity with him,” he said. “No hard feelings towards Shozo. It’s just the fight business. He’s tough, he has heart, he stayed in there for a while. Today was my day, and I’m sure Shozo has some bright things in his future.”
For Lee, the future looks like a quick turnaround and a return to Japan’s Ariake Arena, where he submitted Takeharu Ogawa via first-round anaconda choke at ONE 172 last March. The draw of Japan’s martial arts tradition remains strong for the Hawaii-based dynamo.
“For me, there’s no one specific, but I’d like to get a quick turnaround. Maybe that April card in Tokyo, I’d love to be on it,” Lee said. “The experience was amazing. I love Japan, I love fighting in Japan, and I’d love to get back in there if there are opportunities.”
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