One Championship: Chinese ‘Panda’ Xiong Jingnan promises to bring Angela Lee down
- Xiong Jingnan is the champion heading into Tokyo showdown – but also the underdog
- Strawweight title-holder, who has spent a lifetime being underestimated, is ‘under control’ and ready to prove the doubters wrong again
You could be forgiven for having forgotten just who is the champion and who’s the challenger as the commotion has swirled around the lead up to Sunday’s One Championship world strawweight title fight.
The giveaway has been the times when Xiong “Panda” Jingnan has carried her championship belt over her shoulder but they have been rare and mostly the spotlight has fallen directly on to the fighter who wants to take that belt from her – Angela “Unstoppable” Lee, the golden girl of Asian MMA.
But Xiong has spent a lifetime being underestimated and then proving people wrong and she’s been more than happy to skirt the corridors here, head down and fingers working her phone.
“I am under control,” the Chinese fighter told the Post. “I don’t get too excited before a fight. I just want to continue being who I am and focus all my passion on what happens inside the cage.”
There are 16-fights across a “One: A New Era card that promises to be a wild end to the weekend at Tokyo’s historic Ryogoku Kokugikan.
Usually its walls resound to the grunts and the belly slaps of sumo’s greats as they wage war on each other. Instead today there’ll be a cage set up in the middle of the arena and there’ll be four world titles fights and the One debuts for former UFC world champion’s Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Eddie “The Underground King” Alvarez.
There have been fans milling around the hotel that has hosted the fighters – something previously unseen in Asian MMA – and the buzz has been building. But most of the talk has centred around this strawweight bout that has seemed such a long time in coming.
Xiong (13-1) was ready, willing and able back in November when the pair were set to meet in Singapore before a back injury forced Lee (9-0) out. The Chinese 31-year-old was quite simply gutted then but walked away from the sport for a week or so to regain her composure and to refocus her attention.
“As a world champion you have to shoulder everything – good and bad,” Xiong said. “You have to deal with disappointment or you don’t deserve to be world champion. You have to use it to become stronger and that’s what I have done.”
While the 22-year-old Lee’s rise has been well-documented – from the moment back in 2016 when she captured One’s atomweight title and at 19 became the sport’s youngest-ever world champion – the Beijing-born Xiong has more quietly gone about her business.
Xiong’s title came with a fourth-round TKO over Singapore’s Tiffany Teo (8-1) last January – fighting on despite breaking her hand in the second round. And there have been two defences since – one a laboured decision nod over Brazilian Laura Balin (10-4), the other a display of pure, overwhelming power in a third-round TKO of Brazil’s Samara Santos (11-6-1).
With Lee rising a weight division there has been much debate this week about how the Hawaii-based star will handle Xiong’s heavy hands, and the precision punching that has resulted so far in nine knockouts among her 13 victories.
“I have a very strong heart,” Xiong said. “I can take anything that comes my way. People focus on my striking but I am more than that. I am an all-round fighter and am good on the ground – I have just not had a chance before to showcase those skills. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and I have trained hard to eliminate my weaknesses. I have prepared well and I am ready to show the world the results of that training.”
Slowly – but surely – Chinese fans and Chinese media have got in behind their local hero, a fighter first inspired by her boxer-father.
“People are focusing more on MMA and I am proud that I am part of this,” Xiong said. “I have dedicated myself to this sport for a long time now and I have made the sacrifices you need to make to be a professional fighter. This title fight is what we all dream about and I am not going to give up my title. That’s what I want the world to know.”
