One Championship’s Angela Lee on ‘beating up’ Michelle Nicolini: ‘that was me being nice’

Atomweight champion says ‘it’s gonna be a lot worse on Friday’ when she takes on the Brazilian at One Championship’s Kuala Lumpur show

Nicolini clams Lee ‘beat me up a lot’ in a Muay Thai training session after she submitted her in a 2016 Macau grappling tournament

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Angela Lee squares up to Xiong Jingnan, who she faces in a rematch in October. But first she has to get past Michelle Nicolini – whom she has a score to settle with. Photos: One Championship

Published: 10:54am, 11 Jul 2019Updated: 8:38pm, 12 Jul 2019

Angela Lee has laughed off Michelle Nicolini’s claims she beat her up in a Muay Thai training session, saying: “That was me being nice.”

“Unstoppable” returns to One Championship on Friday against the Brazilian in Kuala Lumpur, on the back of her first loss in MMA against strawweight champion Xiong Jingnan in Tokyo. But it was another loss – in a grappling match to Nicolini in Macau three years ago – that has added a bit of spice to this bout.

Nicolini submitted Lee, and complained One’s atomweight champion “beat me up a lot” when she arrived at Evolve MMA in Singapore for sparring.

“Oh, that was me being nice. Yeah, it’s gonna be a lot worse on Friday,” Lee told the Post in Malaysia.

“I don’t find it surprising she said that, because that’s Michelle. I mean training is training. For someone coming from the jiu-jitsu world wanting to explore MMA, getting hit is what you’ve got to expect, right?