“She's going to be better on the ground” - Angela Lee believes Xiong Jing Nan benefits from training at EVOLVE

As Angela Lee gets closer to her third meeting with strawweight world champion Xiong Jing Nan, the atomweight queen will carry with her one distinct advantage - Lee is a submission specialist with an incredible eight career wins via submission in 11 career victories, giving her an 82% finish rate.

Despite her proficiency on the ground, Angela Lee will take nothing for granted when the two female warriors square off once again in a trilogy bout three years in the making. During that time apart, ‘The Panda’ has been improving her skills while training at EVOLVE MMA.

Discussing the upcoming match-up with Xiong Jing Nan, ‘Unstoppable’ noted the fighters that Xiong trains with at Evolve, as she herself is a part of the Evolve Fight Team. The Singaporean-American said she is expecting a far better fighter than the one she faced twice in 2019, but in the end, none of Xiong’s improvements will be enough:

“[BJJ world champion] Alex Silva, he was my old teammate, one of my friends. I know [Xiong] has a tight-knit group over there. But I'm not concerned about her training with high-level black belts and such. I mean, I'm training with high-level black belts and MMA fighters here. So I think that she's going to be better on the ground since our last encounter. But I still don't think that's going to be enough.”

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Xiong Jing Nan doesn’t subscribe to the concept of winners and losers

For Chinese superstar Xiong Jing Nan, winning has always come naturally. With 17 career wins in mixed martial arts, ‘The Panda’ has only suffered defeat twice in her career. One of those losses came against her ONE on Prime Video 2 opponent, Angela Lee.

But for Xiong, it’s not always about wins and losses. She believes that every fighter is the best at something; for that reason alone, they cannot be the loser in any situation. It’s an interesting thought process that could be a valuable tool to encourage younger fighters to strive for excellence in a specific aspect of their game:

“I’ve never thought about who the strongest or weakest fighter is. Everyone has their strengths and in those areas, no one will be able to match that, so everyone is therefore the best. Every athlete is trying their best to learn and excel and do their best in every fight. I don’t think that we should use the notions of ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ to evaluate who the better fighter is.”