Angela Lee and Xiong Jing Nan will make women’s MMA history together at ONE on Prime Video 2, but Lee hopes to make some history of her own, too.
Lee, the ONE Championship women’s atomweight champion, is moving up from 115 pounds to 125 to challenge strawweight titleholder Xiong in what will be their third encounter, marking the first time that a major MMA title-fight trilogy has taken place between two women. Aside from that, Lee is trying to become the first female MMA double champ in ONE, which means everything to her.
“Going up to strawweight and capturing this second belt has been a goal of mine for many years now,” Lee said during Wednesday’s ONE on Prime Video 2 news conference. “It’s a big moment for me. It’s a historical moment. I’m just very honored to get the opportunity once more, and I’m definitely going to be taking advantage of that.”
The series between Lee (11-2) and Xiong (17-2) is even at one apiece, with each woman successfully defending her title against the other. Their most recent matchup was nearly three years ago, when Lee won a grueling affair by late fifth-round submission in October 2019. Earlier that year in March, another hard-fought battle ended with a finish, only it was Xiong derailing Lee’s champ-champ hopes and handing her first career loss by fifth-round TKO that began with a hard kick to the body.
Body kicks are something Lee will be aware of heading into the trilogy.
“I’ve reviewed the tape with my team,” Lee said. “We have seen that was an area that was exposed in previous fights, and so we definitely worked to correct that in this fight camp. We worked some counters for the body shots, as well, so looking forward to defending some body shots, maybe.”
The long and short of it is that Lee, just like the first two, isn’t expecting an easy matchup with Xiong, who is riding a three-fight winning streak.
She can’t wait to get it going.
“I’m really excited for our third matchup,” said Lee, who’s coming off a submission win over Stamp Fairtex this past March. “It’s been three years, and I know that we both have improved since then, and I’m excited to step in the cage and really test ourselves and see who’s gonna come out on top. It’s gonna be a great fight.”
