“Xiong is very comfortable with this style of fighting” - Tiffany Teo shares thoughts on Xiong vs. Lee III

Tiffany Teo will make her second appearance of 2022 when she returns to the Circle at ONE 161. She will face ‘The Indian Tigress’ Ritu Phogat as ‘No Chill’ makes her atomweight debut.

Tiffany Teo recently spoke to ONE Championship about the highly anticipated ONE on Prime Video 2 headliner between strawweight world champion Xiong Jing Nan and atomweight queen Angela Lee:

“I’m leaning more towards Xiong. Just looking at her evolution as an MMA fighter, I feel like over the years, Xiong has improved her skillset, not just in terms of striking, but also in terms of her grappling, her takedown defense. The past few fights that she has taken against Michelle [Nicolini] and Ayaka [Miura], they are stylistically closer to Angela in the sense that they are all grapplers.”

Tiffany Teo continued her thoughts on the long-awaited trilogy bout:

“They all have that one game plan to take you down and to put you on the ground to do damage or to get the submission. So I think Xiong is very comfortable with this style of fighting, and she has developed a skill set to address the threats that Angela might bring against her in terms of grappling or the takedowns.”

The two will square off nearly three years after their last encounter in 2019. As it stands, both women have a victory over the other.

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Tiffany Teo doesn’t understand how Angela Lee got a shot at the strawweight title

When Angela Lee and Xiong Jing Nan meet for the third time at ONE on Prime Video 2, it will be with Xiong’s strawweight world championship on the line. This will give Lee the opportunity to become a two-division world champion.

While the bout has garnered the interest of fans and fellow fighters alike, Tiffany Teo is not convinced that they should be fighting for the strawweight strap:

“It makes zero sense to me. She pretty much got her a** kicked in the strawweight division - she lost to Michelle [Nicolini], she lost to ‘Panda’ [Xiong Jing Nan]. She has zero wins at strawweight, and the next thing you hear is that she’s fighting for the title.”

Angela Lee’s only two contests in the strawweight division did not go her way. She lost back-to-back fights for the first time in her career to Xiong Jing Nan and Michelle Nicolini in 2019.

However, Lee did score a win over ‘The Panda’ that was contested in the atomweight division, leaving the series tied 1-1. Since Lee was the last to defend her title, it does make sense for their trilogy bout to be contested at strawweight.