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Angela Lee made sure Ham Seo Hee and Stamp Fairtex were in the right head space heading into the historic main event of ONE Fight Night 14.
The former ONE women’s atomweight MMA world champion shocked the sporting world when she announced her retirement mere minutes before Stamp and Ham took the Circle at Singapore Indoor Stadium in September.
Stamp and Ham were originally scheduled to fight for interim gold, but Lee’s retirement prompted ONE Championship to elevate the match for the undisputed ONE women’s atomweight MMA world title.
Lee said in an interview with Ariel Helwani at The MMA Hour that while the general public only knew of her retirement at ONE Fight Night 14, both Ham and Stamp were already privy to her decision 24 hours before the card.
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She said:
“Yeah, that was actually the plan of what was going to happen, and on on the fight week, I asked ONE, I asked the team and said, ‘Hey this is what I want to do. I want to tell these ladies beforehand because there's already so much at stake. There's already so much pressure on them and I think it's only fair to let them know beforehand to prepare themselves and to get their mind ready before the fight.”
ONE Championship also released a backstage video where Lee talked to Stamp and Ham separately to inform them of her emotional decision.
Lee knew the atmosphere would be emotional following her announcement, and that’s why she took it upon herself to tell both fighters a day before the card.
That allowed Stamp and Ham to go at it during the card’s main event in what was one of the best women’s matches in ONE Championship history.
The pair gauged each other in the opening round before going mental in the second. Ham dropped Stamp with a huge straight left in the final two minutes of the second round, but the Thai megastar finished strong and locked in an improbable armbar just as the bell rang.
Stamp upped the pressure in the third and tagged Ham with a gut-wrenching straight right to the body before she finished the South Korean veteran with a flurry of punches.
Watch Lee's entire interview below:
