“I was 18, working as a cook in a hospital and we went to this tournament and I just started teeping people in the face,” the American said. “All of a sudden, my best friend Jack, was like ‘damn, we’re going to start calling you ‘the Chef’ you’ve been serving up those teeps’.”
The nickname stuck and when Lessei walks out to the Lumpinee Stadium ring to face Jo Nattawut this weekend he is sure to be announced that way. If the ring is going to be a kitchen then his Thai opponent, a veteran of around 100 fights, definitely knows the way around it.
Nattawut spent years training and fighting in the US and Lessei said he had been following his opponent’s career for a long time.
“I remember watching him years ago, he’s got such a great no-switch left kick and he still has that kick to this day,” Lessei said. “Other than that, obviously he hits hard. He hits crazy hard.”
While Lessei will be making his ONE Championship debut, Nattawut has been on this stage for several years, and has faced champions past and present including Tawanchai PKSaenchaigym, Chingiz Allazov and Giorgio Petrosyan.
That experience means Lessei is fully aware of Nattawut’s strength’s, but the 27-year-old’s belief in his own ability has him confident he could make any adjustments necessary in their three-round bout.
“I have this ability to adapt on the fly very quickly and I know nobody can match my ability to adapt and do things as fast as I can,” said Lessei, who only turned professional in 2020.
“If you want to elbow, if you want to punch, if you want to kick, if you want to have a defensive battle, I’m good with any of that. The advantage that I think I’m going to have is my creativity.”
Nattawut moved to the US in 2013 and won the Lion Fight super welterweight and middleweight titles before signing with ONE Championship. In Lessei’s homeland everyone on the Muay Thai scene knows exactly who the Thai fighter is.
By contrast Lessie is something of a newcomer. He is aware that fight fans will see him as the underdog and it is a role he is ready to embrace.
“I really have nothing to lose,” he said. “A lot of people maybe don’t even know who I am. I’m just this white kid from Iowa who’s coming to fight Jo Nattawut. I think people might consider that an upset, if I win.”
If Lessei could grind out a decision win over the Thai veteran he would surely be delighted, but he would rather serve up something a little more exotic. “Walk-off knockouts are the only thing I’m going for,” he said.
He might not be a big name heading into his ONE Championship debut but the event is being broadcast live on Amazon Prime in North America, and Lessei knows a single teep could change his life.
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