“I try my best to stay professional” - Angela Lee on staving off detractors, haters

Angela Lee is no stranger to criticism hurled at her from detractors and ‘haters.’

Lee has dominated the women’s MMA scene in Asia since 2016. Hence, it’s only natural for Lee to have accumulated a number of people who don’t like her.

That includes members of the media. One in particular last year bombarded Lee with questions about vacating her atomweight belt - questions Lee says she has grown tired of hearing over and over.

In a recent interview with MMA Mania, the reigning ONE women’s atomweight world champion said:

“It was frustrating, honestly. But at the same time, I didn’t want to direct any of my energy towards people like that. Because you’re gonna have people hating on you in every aspect. At the end of the day, I just don’t want to waste my energy trying to defend something that I really shouldn’t even have to in the first place. I think that I’m only human. Of course, I’m going to get worked up and upset when someone keeps asking me stupid questions over and over. I try my best to stay professional.”

Lee tried her best to explain it once again:

“In this case, there’s wasn’t an interim title because there was the Grand Prix tournament. In that sense, that is kind of the interim champion or this is the Grand Prix champion, Stamp [Fairtex]. Now we’re gonna be ‘unifying’ in a sense if that’s how they want to look at it.”

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Angela Lee set for tough Stamp Fairtex battle in the Circle

Angela Lee steps back onto the battlefield against Thailand’s Stamp Fairtex after roughly two-and-a-half years, or 870 days from today, to be exact. That’s a long time away from competition.

During this period, the COVID-19 pandemic happened, causing chaos around the world. More importantly, it became difficult to host professional martial arts events, especially in the early going. Lee also became pregnant with her first child in mid-2020, which obviously sidelined her for a few months.

It also meant that she needed time to work herself back into fight shape and be ready to defend her world title.

Since Lee has been away, Stamp Fairtex has fought a whopping seven times, winning six of them. Stamp also won the historic ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix during this run.

Angela Lee faces Stamp Fairtex in the main event of ONE X. ONE Championship’s 10-year anniversary extravaganza is scheduled to be broadcast live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Saturday, March 26.