ONE Championship: Angela Lee considered retiring a year ago – but pregnant champ now more motivated than ever
- ‘I didn’t think about that [retirement] when I got pregnant. It did cross my mind for a bit after my last title defence,’ says the 24-year-old
- ‘I still think I’m very young in my career. For sure I’ll be able to stay on top once I get back’
After announcing she is three months pregnant, Angela Lee was quick to confirm that she has no intention on walking away from the ring.
But an early retirement did cross the ONE championship atomweight champ’s mind after her Tokyo triumph a year ago.
The 24-year-old Lee (10-2) made a fourth successful title defence at ONE: Century in the Japanese capital, halting strawweight champ Xiong Jingnan via a dramatic fifth-round submission with seconds to go. The win was a huge relief for “Unstoppable” after a two-fight skid up a division earlier in 2019 had made her doubt herself.
“Honestly, I didn’t think about that [retirement] when I got pregnant. I was thinking about that after my last title defence,” Lee told SCMP MMA.
“It crossed my mind for a bit, But now that I’m pregnant, I think there’s a new motivation for wanting to come back, and especially after I have my baby, just a new motivation to fight for him or her.
“And I’ll be 25, so I still think I’ll be incredibly young and still have quite a few years in me. I love what I do, I honestly love fighting. I love MMA. I wanna get back to doing what I love doing after this.”