Angela Lee began her career by earning comparisons to Ronda Rousey, who sat atop the UFC women’s bantamweight division until two days after Lee secured the third win of her career at ONE Championship 33: Pride of Lions.
Now, as the 22-year-old readies to return to action for the first time since retaining her atomweight title last May, she is trying to join Amanda Nunes as the second active female fighter to stand as a two-weight world champion.
Join DAZN and watch more than 100 fight nights a year
This weekend, ONE Championship brings a stacked card that includes the promotional debuts of Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez to Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan, where Lee will also move up in weight to challenge Jing Nan Xiong for the company’s strawweight title in the penultimate fight of the night.
“Just being on this card itself is being a part of history because it’s going to be such a significant event for ONE Championship and to be the co-main event is a really big honor,” said Lee, speaking with Sporting News on Tuesday evening. "I know this is going to be another turning point in my career. This is another opportunity for me to make history and I’m going to put on a big show for everyone.”
Lee and Xiong were originally scheduled to face off in November, but less than a week before the event, the Canadian-born atomweight titleholder was forced to withdraw from the event after suffering a herniated disc in her back.
Had the bout gone forward as scheduled, Lee could have captured her second world title a handful of weeks sooner than Nunes, who added the UFC featherweight title to her collection with a first-round knockout win over Cris Cyborg at the end of the year. But it wasn’t meant to be.
Now, after a couple additional months to heal and prepare, the confident rising star is ready to take care of business this weekend in Tokyo.
“My back is feeling much better,” said Lee, who carries a 9-0 mark with seven finishes into her co-main event showdown with the 13-1 Xiong. “I think we gave it enough time to heal up, but of course, sometimes with the hard training, it flares up every now and then. But we’ve been monitoring it and I take the time off to rest and recover, so I’ve been taking good care of my body this camp in order to make sure that I’m able to get the job done on fight night. I feel great coming into this fight.”
The addition of Johnson, Alvarez and Sage Northcutt to the ONE Championship roster, as well as the company bringing on Miesha Tate in an executive role, has brought increased attention to the Singapore-based promotion over the last several months, especially from the North American media and this weekend’s event is poised to be the biggest in the company’s history.
In total, 15 bouts are scheduled to hit the cage, with the seven-fight main card featuring four championship fights, along with the debuts of Johnson and Alvarez and a kickboxing match between Andy Souwer and Yodsanklai Iwe.
And while Eduard Folayang and Shinya Aoki will close out the show in a battle for the ONE Championship lightweight title, Lee and Xiong occupy the second-to-last slot on the fight card. It’s an honor that is not lost on the atomweight titleholder and an opportunity she has no intention of squandering.
“I think with DJ and Eddie’s debuts for ONE Championship, I think that lots more eyes around the world that are going to be curious and interested to see how this plays out,” said Lee. “I think it’s great because the more people that are going to tune in, the better and this is going to be ONE Championship’s biggest show, by far.
“One thing that I really love about ONE Championship is that they really offer equal opportunities for males and females,” added the rising star, whose last four bouts have all been main event matchups. “They truly look at us all as athletes and I think it’s great that since I’ve joined, they’ve really been behind me and backing me for who I am as a person, as a human being and as a world champion as well. For them to put me as the co-main event on this card — me and Xiong — it makes a big statement for all organizations and is a big step up for women’s MMA. I know this is going to be another turning point in my career. This is another opportunity for me to make history and I’m going to put on a big show for everyone.”
While she is acutely aware of the opportunity in front of her and the size and scope of this weekend’s fight card, Lee is also doing her best to not let the magnitude of this event and the fact that she can make history with a victory take too prominent a position in her mind as she readies to step into the cage in search of her 10th straight victory.
“Everything is about balance,” she said, acknowledging the need to find a happy medium between the tremendous amount of attention this event and her fight in particular have received and staying focused on the task at hand. “At the end of the day, it is just a fight, but of course, there is so much buildup and hype around this fight.
"My dad used to always ask me was, ‘If this girl was to come into your gym and was going to try and punk you out, what would you do about it?’ and of course, I would go in there and smash her, so it’s the same thing. You’ve got to have that mentality,” she added with a laugh. “I’m not overlooking how big an opportunity this is, but I’ve got to do my job and do what I train to do.”
Join DAZN and watch more than 100 fight nights a year
For Lee, that means storming through Xiong and capturing a second ONE Championship belt, at which point she’ll start trying to figure out whether she wants to stay at strawweight or return to the atomweight ranks.
“I want to put on a display of what MMA is about,” she said. “I’m going to put on a dominant performance and I’m looking to take that belt out of her hands. You’re definitely going to see a beautiful, devastating finish from me.
"(As for what comes next), it all depends on this fight,” Lee added. “If it goes the way that I imagine it to go and I completely walk through her, I think that I may think about staying in the strawweight division. (Fighting in) the atomweight division has always been a pretty tough cut for me, but we’ll see after this fight.”