“Learning to persevere and overcome challenges” - Angela Lee credits parents’ strict style in developing her attitude

Angela Lee believes that life will always have its challenges, and she learned that harsh reality early in her childhood.

The inaugural and former ONE women’s atomweight MMA world champion has been training martial arts her entire life, and being the eldest daughter of Ken and Jewelz Lee certainly had its obstacles.

While Ken and Jewelz provided the Lee siblings with a loving household, they also trained their children to persevere in the gym and achieve greatness no matter the difficulty.

In an interview with the Keep it Aloha Podcast, Angela Lee said her parents’ constant drills and training helped develop her mindset that she can overcome any struggle she’s going through.

She said:

“Definitely. I think because my parents were like 'No you're going to stick with this, you're going to learn how to defend yourself, you're going to train.' That, well obviously, helped me in competition, but also carried out through anything else in life, sticking to something when it's difficult, when you don't want to do it when it's hard. And then learning to persevere and overcome those challenges. They really helped me and shaped me for sure.”

That steely determination made Lee one of the best women’s fighters of her generation.

At just 19 years old, Lee became the inaugural ONE women’s MMA world champion when she beat Japanese pioneer Mei Yamaguchi at ONE: Ascent to Power in Singapore.

Watch Lee's entire interview below:

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Angela Lee recalls what it was like growing up in a martial arts family

Every family has its own set of ideals, and the Lee family took its attitude from martial arts.

The patriarch, Ken, holds black belts in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, and pankration, while his wife Jewelz is also a black belt in taekwondo.

This knowledge of martial arts has been passed down to all four Lee children: Angela, Christian, Victoria, and Adrian.

In the same podcast, Angela Lee recalled how she grew up in a strict household that would sometimes demand nothing but excellence from her and her siblings.

"I'll be honest and say yes, it was pretty strict in my household. I guess the hardest thing was this miscommunication at times, where they would think we were not putting in effort when we were. Or maybe it's like not fully, right? You need to at least try, you're not even trying, you know? But that's so different in everyone's eyes.”