ONE Championship: Demetrious Johnson says Angela and Christian Lee ‘don’t have to come back’ after Victoria’s death
- ONE flyweight MMA king insists fighting is the least important thing right now after the death of Victoria Lee at 18
- ‘Take off, be parents for a while. Fighting ain’t going nowhere. So take all the time you need to get your mind right,’ Johnson says
Demetrious Johnson has told his fellow ONE Championship title-holders Angela and Christian Lee “take all the time you need” following the death of their sister at 18.
The death of Victoria Lee has cast a sombre mood over fight week ahead of ONE Championship’s return to action in Bangkok on Saturday.
While excitement is high for a stacked ONE Fight Night 6 card, which will be broadcast in the US on Amazon Prime Video, the tears will surely flow at Impact Arena when a video tribute to rising atomweight Lee, who died at 18 on Boxing Day, opens the show.
Flyweight MMA champ Johnson will be doing a meet and greet with fans before the event on Saturday morning. He will also be promoting his own return to the Circle on May 5, when ONE makes its debut on US soil in Denver, Colorado.
And while he would have loved to have seen Angela and Christian on the card, he insisted fighting is the least important thing right now.
ONE Fight Night 6 live results and highlights
“I remember when we had to bury my sister, it was like, ‘Oh.’ It was hard. There’s no words to say to make it feel better,” Johnson told the Post at the Best Western Plus Wanda Grand Hotel.
“But a parent shouldn’t have to bury their child – a child should be burying their parents. My condolences to the Lee family. I wish them nothing but just privacy and peace.
“When they’re ready to come back and compete … if they don’t want to, they don’t have to. There’s more to life than just trying to get back to the cage and being able to compete.
“Take two, three years off, enjoy your daughters. I know Christian and Angela, they each have children. Take off, be parents for a while. Fighting ain’t going nowhere, this s*** ain’t going nowhere.
“It’s gonna be here until you guys are ready to come back, so take all the time you need to get your mind right.”
American 37-year-old Johnson will headline ONE Fight Night 11 in a trilogy against Adriano Moraes, whom he swiped his belt from in August with a walk-off flying knee knockout in Singapore.
“Mighty Mouse” – the legendary former UFC flyweight champion – will also be doing some commentary work in Thailand this weekend when the action gets under way.
“I’m super excited for the show. I’m gonna be commentating the last three fights – Mikey Musumeci, Superlek, and Chingiz versus Superbon,” he said.
“It might be something I maybe transition into after I’m done fighting. If you follow my channel, I’ve been streaming my Twitch for 9 years, so me talking in front of a camera and giving opinions on how fights go isn’t something foreign to me.
“I’ve done some broadcasting before on mixed martial arts on Fuel TV. Been there and done it before, so it won’t be all in the paper. But the hardest thing I’ll have trouble with is just pronouncing everyone’s name correctly.”
