“That really shook me up” – Angela Lee shares how she overcame adversity after back-to-back heartbreaking losses

Former ONE atomweight MMA world champion Angela Lee had an impressive run before she called it a career at the age of 27 back in September. But like most fighters, she also hit a rough patch which she had to ponder over.

That slide came in 2019, when she competed in the strawweight division and lost consecutive times. ‘The Unstoppable’ first vied for the ONE strawweight world title in March that year, losing to Chinese champion Xiong Jing Nan by knockout. Three and half months later, she was at it again in the division but lost by unanimous decision to Michelle Nicolini of Brazil.

In a recent interview with Keep It Aloha Podcast, Angela Lee shared that the back-to-back losses in 2019 made her think of the direction of her career was taking at that point, saying:

“I've had losses in my career. I've had two losses and it was in the weight category above me so I fought at 115 and I went up to 125. The first loss I had was, that was tough, because it was the first loss of my entire career.

“And I wanted to get back in there and kind of just bounce back, you know? I was like ‘Oh maybe it was a fluke and I try again.’ But, you know, that really shook me up and I was like ‘What is going on?’ Like I was actually pretty depressed for a while.”

Check out what he had to say below:

Lee eventually recovered from the defeats when she returned to the atomweight division. She successfully defended her world title, first in October 2019 against Xiong by submission in the fifth round and then against Stamp Fairtex in March 2022, also by submission but in the second round.

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Angela Lee says she is still adjusting with life in retirement

Angela Lee is getting used to life in retirement but is excited about exploring what life away from competition holds for her.

The former ONE atomweight world champion stepped away from the game back in September to pursue what she said was the next chapter of her life.

But before she made her retirement official, she was on a self-imposed break to mourn the tragic passing of her younger sister and fellow ONE fighter Victoria, 18, who took her own life in December 2022.

Three months since the announcement, Angela Lee said she is still adjusting to the setup of retirement but is finding ways to keep her busy and take on activities worth her while.

In the same interview with Keep It Aloha Podcast, she shared:

“Now that I've retired from fighting, it's been really hard for me to adjust and just train or exercise just for my well-being for my mental health. So I've been trying to find a new hobby or a new thing. I still love training, I really do but I'm like there's so many other things out there. But yeah, just trying to find that healthy lifestyle and exercising for other reasons.”

Angela Lee became the ONE atomweight MMA world champion in 2016 and defended the title five times. She finished her ONE career with an 11-3 record. Her last official fight was in September 2022, where she vied again for the ONE strawweight MMA world title but lost to champion Xiong Jing Nan.