“It was very touching” – Angela Lee on backstage exchange with Stamp and Ham Seo Hee

Martial arts is so much more than just a brawl between competitors, and a short exchange between Angela Lee, Stamp Fairtex, and Ham Seo Hee just before ONE Fight Night 14 inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium last month backs that statement to its fullest.

ONE Championship’s return to the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday, September 29, was headlined by an interim world title match between former two-sport queen Stamp Fairtex and No.2-ranked Ham.

Moments before that hotly-anticipated battle unfolded, longtime divisional queen ‘Unstoppable’ returned to the very place where she laced the four-ounce gloves professionally for the first time to announce her retirement.

It was revealed after Stamp’s victory that Lee visited both warriors during fight week to break the news about their interim battle being a contest to determine the true divisional queen.

While it was a way to fire up both superstars to perform to the best of their abilities at fight night, it was very obvious that both women couldn’t help but feel sad for the promotion’s longest-reigning female MMA world champion.

Tears were shed, bits of advice were exchanged, but most importantly, that short moment allowed three of the best female warriors to bond through what they share in common – martial arts.

The 27-year-old Lee briefly touched on the moment during a virtual appearance on The MMA Hour alongside Ariel Helwani, saying:

“I was really surprised. When I'm on this journey and when I'm fighting like you don't really take their time to think about things like that. What they showed me, was how much it meant for them, and so yeah, it was very touching.”

Watch the interview here:

It was some way for Lee to call it a day on her glittering career, having become the world’s youngest MMA world champion when she defeated Mei Yamaguchi at ONE: Ascent to Power in May 2016, aged 19 years old and nine months.

She reigned over the division for close to seven years until Stamp’s victory over Ham at ONE Fight Night 14 on September 29 officially made Stamp Fairtex the promotion’s first three-sport world champion.

Relive all the action from the female-led event last month on Amazon Prime Video, available to active subscribers in North America.