feature-image
feature-image

“Unstoppable” Angela Lee capped off yet another successful World Title defense last month. Now, the Singaporean-American superstar has her heart set on a fresh challenge.

Watch What’s Trending Now!

In a recent interview with ONE, the ONE Atomweight World Champion expressed her desire to tango with the Strawweight queen, “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan, for the third time.

ADVERTISEMENT

And she truly believes that the third time will surely be the charm.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I definitely want to capture the strawweight belt. So I’d love to fight Xiong again and step up to strawweight and try to capture that champ-champ status,” the 25-year-old said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Read MoreONE Championship Signs a Mega 5-Year Deal With Prime Video to Broadcast Events in the United States

“I think that I have grown a lot more in these past few years and made a lot more improvements than she has, and I think it can show in our performances. So definitely, when we match up again, it’s going to be a different story, and I think everyone is eager to see it.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Lee and Xiong share one win apiece in their rivalry that dates back to ONE’s first venture into Japan in March 2019. At ONE: A NEW ERA, the United MMA and Evolve MMA standout moved up a weight class to challenge the Chinese athlete for her gold.

ADVERTISEMENT

Unfortunately for the longtime Atomweight queen, she was bested by Xiong’s striking, eventually losing the tie via TKO at 1:37 of the fifth stanza.

ADVERTISEMENT

Seven months later, however, Lee flipped the script. She took out “The Panda” with a late rear-naked choke submission to defend her World Title.

Angela Lee is ready for Xiong Jing Nan but also has her eyes set on the Atomweight division

Xiong has since defended her ONE Strawweight World Title three more times, while Lee’s win over Stamp at ONE X on March 26 was her first appearance in the Circle after a two-and-a-half-year layoff to focus on the birth of her daughter, Ava Marie.

ADVERTISEMENT

That time off did not seem to interrupt Lee’s progress, and her highlight-reel finish over the surging #1 contender has only made her more motivated to continue taking bigger names.

ADVERTISEMENT

Lee will likely put her gold on the line again this year, but she’s also eying a date against Xiong to seal her status as a two-division queen.

Also ReadONE Championship Beats the UFC and Multiple Other Sports for Global Viewership and Engagement in 2021 With Staggering Numbers

Nothing seems certain at this point. But “Unstoppable” admits that she would be open to either option in her next appearance on the global stage.

“Also, there’s a lot of atomweights in the division now, so I’d love to keep defending my title, but I’d like to see the strawweight division grow, just like the atomweight division has grown,” she said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Share this with a friend:

Link Copied!

ADVERTISEMENT

Written by

author-image

Deepak Kumar

1,085 Articles

Deepak Kumar is a UFC author at EssentiallySports. His love for MMA comes from the chaos and violence the fight business brings to the table. A BJJ aspirant, Deepak began following the sport as a casual fan when Ronda Rousey was finishing her opponents in seconds. Now, a hardcore fan of names like Petr Yan, Charles Oliveira, and Tony Ferguson, he just can't even miss a single fight. This has helped him develop a passionate understanding of the sport that he hopes to translate into his work. When not working, he likes to hang out with his squad.

Know more

Edited by

editor-image

Vibhanshu Kumar

ADVERTISEMENT