Obituary | Victoria Lee: the story of ONE Championship’s Prodigy who died aged 18
- Lee burned brightly in a brief career in ONE, and there is little doubt she would have gone on to win a world title
- ‘Please, check on your loved ones. Keep checking on them. Give them hugs and tell them how much they mean to you,’ elder sister Angela Lee says
I have met many of the famous fighting Lee family and their entourage, when watching Angela and Christian Lee compete several times at ONE Championship events in 2019 and 2022.
They are a personable bunch, who travel en masse and stick together. They packed out the media rooms before and after Christian won his second MMA title in November, watching on proudly and hanging on his every word as I interviewed him, while his and Angela’s young daughters ran around causing harmless havoc.
But I was really looking forward to watching their younger sibling fight live in person for the first time this weekend, with Victoria Lee finally set to return – after more than 15 months out – against India’s Zeba Bano at ONE on Prime Video 6 in Bangkok.
“Please, check on your loved ones. Keep checking on them. Give them hugs and tell them how much they mean to you,” ONE’s atomweight champion wrote.
There is something especially sad about generational young athletes not fulfilling their destinies, and winning the trophies and titles their immense talent demanded – even more so when their lives end too soon.