Tiffany Teo defends former foe Xiong Jing Nan’s recent lack of finishes

Tiffany Teo has come to the defense of Xiong Jing Nan after Angela Lee made note of her lack of finishes as of late.

Atomweight world champion Angela Lee criticized her ONE on Prime Video 2 opponent Xiong Jing Nan, accusing her of losing her killer instinct in recent years. As the two women prepare to meet for the third time in a long-awaited trilogy bout, Lee called out ‘The Panda’ in an interview with ONE Championship, claiming that the Chinese world champion 'fights not to lose'.

Now coming to the defense of Xiong Jing Nan is Tiffany Teo, who will also be in action this week when she makes her atomweight debut against the returning Ritu Phogat.

Responding to Angela Lee’s comments in an interview with ONE Championship, ‘No Chill’ said:

“For me, a win is a win. I mean, if you win by knockout, you win by submission, you win by winning all the rounds, a win is still a win. And that’s what you’re supposed to do as a professional athlete. Your role is to win the fight, whatever it takes. If it means going the full five rounds, you go the full five rounds.”

Tiffany Teo also accused Lee of employing the same tactic when she fought Michelle Nicolini in her second turn in the strawweight division.

“On the flipside, looking at Angela [Lee] vs. Michelle [Nicolini], she played to not lose, but she lost, right? So it isn’t important if you’re playing not to lose or you play to knock someone out, at the end of the day, you want to win, right? So it’s just a means of getting a win, and everyone has different means.”

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Tiffany Teo says getting the job done is the most important thing, no matter how you do it

There is no doubt that Angela Lee has a knack for finishing her opponents, typically via submission. For Xiong Jing Nan, wins by way of knockout were second. However, Xiong has seen her finish rate diminish with three straight unanimous decisions.

Continuing to play devil’s advocate, Tiffany Teo further defended Xiong Jing Nan and her lack of recent finishes, suggesting that there may have been things going on that we were not fully aware of.

“You might favor the knockout, but that style might not suit her. Maybe she was trying to, but she couldn't, so she had to play with what she had. We don’t know what Xiong was going through, maybe she had an injury and it was hard for her.”

Tiffany Teo continued:

“I mean, I don’t know, I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, but we don’t know what’s going on there. She got it done at the end of the day, she won her fights. Besides that one loss to Angela, she hasn’t lost any, so it seems to be working for her.”