Angela Lee eyes domination in MMA title defence

SINGAPORE – When mixed martial arts (MMA) star Angela Lee steps into the cage at Bangkok's Impact Arena to defend her ONE Championship women’s atomweight title at the ONE: Warrior Kingdom event next month, she will be aiming for more than just a regular victory over her Taiwanese opponent Jenny Huang.

Instead, the 20-year-old has one word on her mind: Domination.

It matters not that Huang is undefeated in five bouts, and has built a reputation for herself as a versatile fighter who is not only well-versed in a variety of martial arts such as Wushu, but is also an impressive grappler, having secured three of her victories through submissions.

Lee remains confident that she will be able to completely overwhelm her 26-year-old challenger in the cage and secure a convincing victory that will prove her status as champion is no fluke.

“Yes, Jenny’s a tough fighter. She’s undefeated, is very well-rounded and I think it’ll be interesting to see how our grappling styles match up, if our fight does get to the ground,” Lee told TODAY.

“But I’ve got a solid game plan worked out, and I believe that this will be a great fight for me because I see myself dominating the bout in every area, so I’m really excited for it.

“Winning in a convincing manner is always the goal when I step into the cage. I’m naturally a very dynamic and explosive fighter, so everyone is going to see just who I am as a champion that night.”

Lee, who was born in Canada and has a Singaporean father, won her title in May last year after overcoming Japan’s Mei Yamaguchi via unanimous decision – the victory saw her become the youngest world champion in a major global MMA organisation.

Since then, Lee has been propelled to stardom as the fresh, young face of ONE Championship, and her upcoming bout against Huang will be her first since beating Yamaguchi.

Shuttling between Hawaii, where she is based, and Asia, Lee has been involved in numerous marketing and promotional events for ONE Championship.

But the 1.62m-tall fighter, who trains at Evolve MMA Gym whenever she is in Singapore, says that she will be focusing solely on training in the next few weeks leading up to the fight.

“I’m trying to fulfil all my media obligations early on, so that once I head back to Hawaii this Saturday (Feb 11), I can fully focus on preparing for the fight,” Lee explained.

“I enjoy helping out with these promotional events because I want everyone to watch the fight. But obviously, training is the most important, so everything is worked around that. So that is why I always try to get as much of that as possible at Evolve MMA whenever I’m in Singapore.

“Every champion’s first title defence is important, and I’m training extremely hard for this fight. Winning the bout against Yamaguchi gave me quite a lot of experience, and I'm going to use that to move forward and defend the title.”

Lee was speaking to TODAY on the sidelines of a ONE Championship media session today (Feb 7) which saw customised mouth guards created for both her and her younger brother, Christian.

As part of the process, a 3D scan of their teeth was first performed by dental surgeon Dr. Shaun Thompson of ExpatDental. A 3D model of their teeth will then be printed out, which thereafter will be used to create mouth guards that will perfectly fit their teeth.