Angela Lee: From Fight-Canceling Car Crash To MMA’s Next Potential Double-Champ
ONE Championship women’s
But ONE’s fastest-rising star didn’t arrive necessarily at this point taking a straight path. Lee’s story is a unique one, one mixed with phenom-like early successes and overcoming adversity that followed. Lee became the youngest-ever major champion in mixed martial arts (MMA) history when she won the
The Chinese-Korean fighter, who fights out of Hawaii, was rightfully pegged as the next big thing in Asian MMA. She has not disappointed since, but the last few years have been filled with a few significant injury-related setbacks for Lee. She defended the title twice in 2017, defeating Jenny Huang and
Lee was then scheduled to rematch Yamaguchi in November of that year. However, a serious car accident where Lee fell asleep at the wheel forced the bout to be rescheduled in 2018.
Check out the carnage here courtesy of Rob DeMello:
Angela Lee’s Comeback
Thankfully, Lee escaped with no serious injuries. She suffered a concussion and some minor burns. Lee bounced back to defeat Yamaguchi a second time via unanimous decision at May 2018’s ONE: Unstoppable Dreams. It was an event showcasing her own ‘Unstoppable’ nickname. She was then booked to face Xiong last November.
A back injury put a temporary halt to that, however, forcing the fight to be rescheduled for this weekend. It also left Lee with just one bout since May 2017, a small derailment of the massive momentum she had built up in 2016-2017.
That’s a small setback. It shouldn’t take away from Lee’s massive talent and
ONE’s Biggest Star
If – and it’s certainly a big if – Lee is able to dethrone Xiong, the sky’s the limit. A loss wouldn’t completely end her hype train as she’s only 22, but it would be a setback. A win, however, would mean that Lee is without a doubt ONE’s biggest homegrown star. She probably already is.
The surging Asian promotion made waves with their signings of UFC stars Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez. They’ll make their debuts at A New Era as well. You could also argue both are out of their primes or close to it. They also made their names in the UFC (and Bellator, in Alvarez’ case).
Lee is different, obviously. She’s ONE’s fastest-rising talent and could become a truly historic achiever in the sport at only 22 years old. Let that sink in. That’s a Jon Jones-level accomplishment, even if it isn’t in the UFC.
No Easy Task
To get there, she’ll have to topple one of female MMA’s best under-the-radar fighters. Xiong won three fights in ONE last year, most recently knocking out Samara Santos Cunha last September. She’s a dangerous striker who has won five out of her past seven fights by T/KO.
So her title bout with Lee presents a very interesting striker vs. grappler match-up. Lee claims to know what Xiong plans to do in Tokyo. She revealed that at yesterday’s official press conference (via South China Morning Post):
“I know what she’s going to do. She likes to bully opponents. But I don’t see that happening at all.”
Lee believes their clashing styles will make for a very interesting contrast in Tokyo:
“I think her style and my style match up perfectly. We’re both very aggressive, and when we meet in the middle you’ll see what happens.”
Into The Mainstream?
The opportunity is there for Lee to burst into the MMA mainstream. Unfortunately, the same probably isn’t true for Xiong. But she’ll undoubtedly make some headlines of her own if she can stop ‘Unstoppable’ in Tokyo.
All of that boils down to an extremely intriguing women’s strawweight title clash on a card featuring four title fights. This fight may be the most important one and by no small margin. That’s because Lee is featured in it. The pressure is on ONE’s face of female MMA as a result. She’s ready to face it. Lee proved that guaranteeing that history would be made this weekend:
“This match-up has been in the mix for a while now,” Lee said. “This event right here is by far the biggest event for ONE Championship and one thing I can guarantee you is that on March 31 history will be made.
Lee has overcome some significant injury setbacks to get to this point. She needs a huge performance to re-establish some of that momentum she had two years ago. Xiong is a very difficult opponent to do that against, yet that’s part of what makes this fight so intriguing.
Again, the future is bright and the sky is the limit for Lee. Her evolution will take a huge next step if she summits one of MMA’s highest mountaintops at only 22 years old. There’s a dangerous ‘Panda’ bear waiting to put a halt to that in Tokyo, however.
So get ready to watch one of MMA’s brightest future stars at A New Era. Just how bright that star shines this weekend is up to Lee.
