Angela Lee on deciding to retire after Victoria passed away: “I just didn’t have the heart for it anymore”

Former ONE women’s atomweight MMA world champion ‘Unstoppable’ Angela Lee announced her retirement from professional competition last week. This takes place just before the main event of ONE Fight Night 14 tipped off between Stamp Fairtex and Ham Seo Hee.

The emotional sequence saw Lee enter the Circle for the very last time, clutching her ONE Championship belt, which she symbolically left on the mat to make her retirement official.

Afterward, Angela Lee revealed how she came to the conclusion of hanging up her gloves for good following the tragic death of her younger sister, Victoria Lee, in December of 2022.

Lee told the South China Morning Post in a recent interview that she fell out of love with fighting:

“So yeah, with everything that happened, after losing Victoria just too many things have changed. I just didn’t have the heart for it anymore. Honestly, like even training, I couldn’t think about it because she was my main training partner, you know.”

Victoria Lee passed away the day after Christmas in Hawaii. Angela Lee created her non-profit organization, FightStory, in her late sister’s honor. The group seeks to help people suffering from depression and suicide. She added:

“So yeah, I knew that this was the right decision and I’m closing the door on this one chapter and ready to open the next chapter, FightStory.”

The Singaporean-American superstar first captured the atomweight belt in 2016, defeating Japanese veteran Mei Yamaguchi via unanimous decision to become the youngest MMA world champion in history at the age of 19.

‘Unstoppable’ Angela Lee would go on to defend her world title a total of five times in a span of six years. She last saw action in October of 2022 in Singapore, when she failed in her bid to become a two-division ONE world champion, losing a five-round unanimous decision to ONE women’s strawweight MMA world champion ‘The Panda’ Xiong Jing Nan.