Angela Lee says she doesn’t know if she will actually stay retired: “All I know is that right now is not the time”

Former ONE atomweight world champion Angela Lee officially announced her retirement from mixed martial arts during a special appearance at ONE Fight Night 14 on Friday, September 29, which took place inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

This paved the way for the originally scheduled ONE interim atomweight MMA world title between Stamp Fairtex and Ham Seo Hee to be upgraded to the undisputed title, which saw the former scored a third-round TKO finish to become the new atomweight queen.

Despite witnessing the action-packed match cageside, Unstoppable’ reiterated that she isn’t planning to return in the future. She happily answered this in a recent interview with ESPN MMA’s Marc Raimondi on September 30.

Lee stated:

“The honest answer to that is, I don't know [whether I’ll go back on my decision]. I know that. All I know is that right now is not the time, it's not where I feel I'm meant to be, and I'm just gonna still have you know that fire inside of me, but I'm just redirecting it to something else.”

This decision was caused by the tragic death of Angela’s younger sister, Victoria, in December 2022. That sparked an inspiration for her to start the non-profit organization, Fightstory, to help other professional athletes and people from all walks of life with their mental health struggles.

She added:

“You know, not fighting in the cage anymore, but fighting a much more important battle and much more purposeful fight outside of the cage trying to make a difference in the world with Fightstory. “

See the full interview below:

Before relinquishing the golden belt, Lee amassed a record of 11 wins and three losses in the world’s largest martial arts organization. Along with these wins are her world title triumphs and multiple successful world title defenses.

You can watch the ONE Fight Night 14 replay on demand via Amazon Prime Video in North America.