“Everyone goes through a struggle or battle” – Angela Lee says Fightstory should help connect fighters "with the rest of the world"

Recently retired ONE Championship superstar Angela Lee sees her newly formed non-profit organization Fightstory as a “bridge” for fighters to connect to more people. This, as they cope with the struggles that accompany a career in combat sports.

Fightstory is aimed at helping people struggling with mental health get through life. It is one of the things that ‘Unstoppable’ is focusing on after announcing her retirement from the game at the age of 27 last September.

In an interview with Hawaii News Now, Angela Lee highlighted the path they want to chart with their non-profit, saying:

“Everyone goes through a struggle or a battle and so that's kind of what we wanted Fightstory to represent, this whole community and connecting the combat sports world with the rest of the world essentially.”

Check out the interview below:

The direction they want to take partly stems from Angela Lee’s experience with mental health struggles that nearly cost her life back in 2017. It also considered what her younger sister and fellow ONE fighter Victoria went through as she took her own life at 18 last December.

Angela Lee retired undefeated as the ONE women’s atomweight mixed martial arts champion. But before making her retirement official, she was already on a self-imposed break to mourn the tragic death of her sister.

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Angela Lee says mental health in combat sports still has a long way to go

Former ONE women’s atomweight MMA world champion Angela Lee believes there is still much left to do as far as prioritizing mental health in combat sport is concerned despite the significant strides already made on that front.

She wants to augment the movement for it through her newly former non-profit organization Fightstory, whose mission is to provide help to people grappling with mental health go through life.

In an interview with The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Lee shared how what they offer at Fightstory is needed in combat sports, saying:

"It's really important that FightStory succeeds just because I see such a huge need for our mission and what we're aiming to do. We've come a long way talking about mental health but we still have a long way to go, especially in the fight world, especially in combat sports. We're hoping to do some good things, make some changes and just fight the good fight for mental health.”

Check out what she had to say below:

Fightstory is part of what Lee described as the next chapter of her life after deciding to call it career in September. She was happy to report that reception to the organization has been warm, making them more determined to succeed in it.