Angela Lee To Compete For Second World Title In Singapore

“Unstoppable” Angela Lee will compete to become ONE Championship’s first-ever two-division women’s World Champion.

The historic World Champion versus World Champion bout was announced at a ONE press conference in Tokyo, Japan, on 23 August. The ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion will compete for the ONE Women’s Strawweight World Title in her next bout.

The Evolve representative will face the winner of the match between “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan and Samara “Marituba” Santos, which is set to take place at ONE: BEYOND THE HORIZON in Shanghai, China, on 8 September.

“I’m going to be keeping a good eye on that,” Lee said.

“I’m super excited. I’ve been wanting to go up in weight for a while now, I feel like strawweight is more of my natural division, so I’m looking forward to it.

“[A bout with Xiong] will be a very exciting fight because of her style. She’s very aggressive, she puts on a good show, and I think our styles match up very nicely.

“It’s World Champion versus World Champion between the only two female champions in the organization, so I think the fans are definitely going to want to see this.”

Lee won her World Title after one of the most exciting bouts in ONE history against Mei “V.V.” Yamaguchi in May 2016. She has defended it three times – against Jenny “Lady GoGo” Huang, Istela Nunes, and in a rematch with Yamaguchi in May.

Xiong on the other hand, became the inaugural World Champion in her weight class – and China’s first-ever mixed martial arts World Champion – when she defeated Tiffany “No Chill” Teo in January.

The Chinese athlete has since consolidated her reign by defending her belt once against Laura “La Gladiadora” Balin in June. Her Brazilian challenger, Santos, will make her ONE debut when she competes in Xiong’s homeland at the Baoshan Arena.