Angela Lee says athletes have already begun reaching out to Fightstory: “It’s very eye opening to see”

Just before the main event of ONE Fight Night 14 went down on Friday, September 29, ONE atomweight world champion Angela Lee made her way to the global stage in the very venue she turned professional.

Standing in the middle of the circle inside the Singapore Indoor Arena, ‘Unstoppable’ announced her retirement from MMA. She vacated the title so that Stamp Fairtex and Ham Seo Hee could compete to become the true atomweight champion.

In the weeks leading up to the event, Lee had told her story that fans had not been privy to through a series of brave and open interviews following on from her essay in The Players’ Tribune.

Speaking about her battles with mental health over the years, Lee’s decision to call time on her career and walk away from the circle was brought on by the passing of her younger sister Victoria in December last year.

Instead of keeping her sister’s memory alive through competition, she looks to do it through helping others with her non-profit organization Fightstory.

Through telling her own story, the former world champion hopes to inspire others to do the same in an experience that is both cathartic for the person involved and inspiring for others that may be going through similar battles in their own life.

During an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Angela Lee revealed that she has already had messages from fellow fighters about Fightstory which she hopes to continue building into a platform that can be a beacon for anyone that is struggling:

“Yes, there have been fighters who have reached out. I am talking with them currently about how we can work together or how we can help them through FightStory. It's very eye opening to see and I'm hoping that over the next few months and years that people will be able to see that we are doing good and we are changing lives and saving people through this. It's such a difficult topic to talk about, there's so many different avenues of mental health.”

Watch the full interview below: