professional<\/a> career perfectly. He submitted Antonio Mammarella in his promotional debut at ONE 167 in June 2024. Nico Cornejo followed via first-round rear-naked choke at ONE 168. Takeharu Ogawa lasted just 63 seconds at ONE 172 before succumbing to an anaconda choke. Three fights. Three first-round finishes. Three $50,000 performance bonuses.<\/p>\nThen Tye Ruotolo happened. The ONE Welterweight Submission Grappling World Champion made his MMA debut last September against Lee. The Californian showcased budding striking and elite grappling credentials. Ruotolo forced Lee to tap via rear-naked choke in the second round. The experience taught lessons no training camp replicates.<\/p>\n
Isojima knows exactly how that feels. The 28-year-old Japanese fighter fell to Ruotolo via rear-naked choke at ONE 173 in November. Both men suffered their first career defeats to the same elite grappler. That shared experience creates a fascinating matchup between fighters desperate to bounce back. The 6-1 Kuwana native carries credentials but faces similar demons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat fight with Tye, it was a rough one,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I was in that ring with Tye, it was kind of new. Tye was definitely the highest caliber opponent I\u2019ve fought so far, and I think it was definitely a little bit of a shocker. I didn\u2019t think that he\u2019d get under me so fast and that he\u2019d get right into the takedown. I went right into his world. It kind of just started off on a bad foot and kept going his way throughout that fight. So, there was definitely a lot to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Adrian Lee extracted valuable lessons from his setback<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old Prodigy Training Center product analyzed his performance objectively rather than making excuses. He rested his body for weeks after the loss. Then he returned to training with new fire. The gaps in his game needed fixing. Composure under adversity required development.<\/p>\n
That mental adjustment matters most. Lee had never been taken down before Ruotolo. He\u2019d never lost positions in previous fights. The unfamiliar territory made everything feel worse than reality. His head told him he was losing worse than he actually was. Experience came at a price.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest lesson I learned from that fight was my composure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was the first time I\u2019ve ever been put in a position like that in any of my fights. In my head, I had thought I was losing the fight a lot worse than I was just because I\u2019ve never gotten taken down. I\u2019ve never lost any positions in a fight before. So definitely, it added a lot to my experience. Now, I know how to stay more composed and more level-headed during a fight. I\u2019m excited to show that in this next fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isojima represents the perfect opponent for Lee\u2019s return. The Japanese fighter brings resiliency and grinding ability. He can strike, take opponents down, and hold them down with ground-and-pound pressure. His judo and wrestling accolades provide legitimate credentials.<\/p>\n
But Lee sees weaknesses. Isojima gets touched up frequently in his fights. The Hawaiian believes he\u2019ll dominate everywhere the fight goes. His training since childhood created a fighter who flows between striking, wrestling, and grappling seamlessly. That versatility represents his biggest strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think his biggest strengths are probably his resiliency and his ability to just grind,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s a grinder. He\u2019s able to strike, take you down, hold you down, and ground-and-pound. And then for weaknesses, I\u2019ve seen him get touched up a lot in his fights. He has some accolades in his judo and his wrestling, but I believe that I\u2019ll beat him everywhere in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first defeat stings differently when you\u2019re unbeaten. Adrian Lee tasted that bitter reality in September and returns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[195639,64,63,786,785,2843,195640,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-463404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-adrian-lee","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-one-championship","14":"tag-one-fight-night-40","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}