ONE Championship: Bi Nguyen says Angela Lee should vacate title ‘if she doesn’t come right back’ after pregnancy

‘Killer Bee’ pleads her case for a spot in ONE’s atomweight grand prix to determine Lee’s next challenger

But Nguyen thinks if the champ’s return drags on, ‘as hard as it is, then she needs to vacate – but we need to give her at least the chance’

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Bi Nguyen is hoping to secure a spot in the ONE Championship atomweight grand prix. Photo: Instagram

Published: 9:09pm, 23 Oct 2020Updated: 11:47pm, 23 Oct 2020

Count Bi Nguyen in for the ONE Championship atomweight grand prix to decide Angela Lee’s next challenger. But “Killer Bee” thinks the pregnant champ should step aside if she can’t make a quick return to the Circle as promised.

After Lee (10-2) announced this month she was expecting her first child next April, No 1-ranked Denice Zamboanga (5-0) called for the 24-year-old to vacate the atomweight title. “Unstoppable” hit back on social media and called the Filipino “entitled”, insisted she would be back in action by late 2021 to meet the winner of next year’s eight-woman tournament

ONE chairman Chatri Sityodtong weighed in and said it would be “unfathomable” to strip Lee of the belt she worked so hard to earn, but Vietnamese-American Nguyen (5-5) believes it should happen if her return date stretches on late into 2022.

“I understand both sides,” Nguyen told SCMP MMA. “I understand Denice’s eagerness to fight for the belt, but I think it’s kinda great Chatri, what he’s doing, because sometimes as a female fighter it’s really an ultimatum. As a male fighter you can have children, your wife can have kids and you can keep fighting. But for a woman it’s career or family.

“It’s beautiful that Angela is given at least the chance to have the baby, come right back to work, because that’s her responsibility. If she doesn’t come right back, as hard as it is, then she needs to vacate. But we need to give her at least the chance.”

“Denice sees it this way but if she put herself in Angela’s shoes, if she was the one who was pregnant, she’d want the same exact opportunity.