ONE Championship: Angela Lee laughs at Xiong Jingnan’s ‘excuse’ that she’s taking it easy on opponents – ‘we’re in the fight business’

Atomweight champ ‘not impressed’ by Xiong’s recent fights, nor her claim she doesn’t want to hurt title challengers

Lee open to running it back with ‘The Panda’ for trilogy title bout after Chinese fighter’s callout, but only at strawweight

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Angela Lee faces off with Xiong Jingnan ahead of their rematch in Tokyo. Photo: ONE Championship

Published: 8:36pm, 23 Jan 2022

Angela Lee is “not impressed” by Xiong Jingnan’s recent performances, nor the ONE strawweight champion’s claim she is taking it easy on her challengers because she does not want to hurt them.

China’s Xiong (17-2) made a sixth successful defence of her belt with a unanimous decision over Ayaka Miura last week. But her tame display drew criticism from ONE Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong, who said she “lacked killer instinct”.

“The Panda” also respectfully called out Lee (10-2) for a trilogy fight at atomweight. But while “Unstoppable” wants to run it back, she will only consider it at strawweight.

“I tuned into the last few fights that she’s had, and honestly, me – along with the rest of the fans, and I’m pretty sure I heard Chatri saying it as well, he’s not too impressed with her performances,” Lee told the Post.

“And you can really see in her last two performances, she’s been planning to not lose instead of planning to win, and there’s a big difference there.

“So I think after my next fight on March 26, we’ll go from there. But as a person who’s always looking to finish the fight, I think it’ll be a very interesting matchup.