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Angela Lee hasn't stepped inside the ONE Championship cage in the last two years, having taken time off to prepare herself for motherhood. ONE Championship CEO and founder Chatri Sityodtong believes this was not a good reason to strip her of the atomweight title.
Angela Lee has been the face of women's MMA in ONE Championship since entering the roster as an 18-year-old back in May 2015. The last time she fought inside an MMA cage was during her rematch with Xiong Jing Nan in October 2019.
'Unstoppable' won that bout with a fifth-round rear-naked choke submission, improving her professional MMA record to 10-2.
When Sityodtong got a call from Lee to tell him personally regarding her break from the sport, he assessed the situation. According to Sityodtong, the right thing to do was to allow lee to retain the belt.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, the 51-year-old made the following statement:
"We just thought about it and I just thought about it and the right thing to do is– this is her regular job, the woman gets pregnant and you are supposed to celebrate," said Sityodtong.
"Stripping is the wrong thing so we did an atomweight grand prix with eight of the best atomweight females from around the world and the winner is Stamp Fairtex, the two-sport world champion, and now vying for a third world title."
WATCH: Chatri Sityodtong's full interview with Ariel Helwani below:
Angela Lee is set to return to ONE Championship and defend her title against Stamp Fairtex
During his interview with Ariel Helwani, Sityodtong also announced Angela Lee's return to the ring. The reigning atomweight champion is set to take on atomweight grand prix champion Stamp Fairtex. Both fighters are set to battle each other in the promotion's 10th anniversary fight card in ONE:X on March 26 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Stamp Fairtex came out on top of the Grand Prix tournament after beating Alyona Rassohyna, Julie Mezabarba and Ritu Phogat. The 24-year-old fighter from Thailand has only been beaten once in nine professional bouts with her victories almost evenly divided into three knockouts, three decisions and two submissions. All of her matches were fought in ONE Championship
