“Losing was a good thing for me” - Xiong Jing Nan believes her loss to Angela Lee was essential for her growth

ONE women’s strawweight world champion Xiong Jing Nan recently opened up about her loss to atomweight queen Angela Lee. Although the loss wasn’t easy to accept, ‘The Panda’ has since come to terms with her defeat with a growth mindset.

Xiong and Lee are 1-1 as they head towards their third encounter and second strawweight world title match at ONE on Prime Video 2. In 2019, Xiong successfully retained her belt against Lee at ONE: A New Era, stopping Lee from becoming a two-division world champion.

Not long after, Xiong decided to move down a weight class and challenge for the atomweight strap but fell short to Lee in the final round. Instead of dwelling over her loss, the 34-year-old striker managed to turn a negative into a positive by focusing on the areas she needed to improve on in order to become a more complete fighter.

She told ONE:

“The second time we met was when I [challenged for her atomweight world title], I ended up losing. For me, even though I was sad, it was a good sadness, because I wasn’t too happy despite winning the first match. Losing was a good thing for me, because I could see more of my shortcomings.”

Xiong Jing Nan was riding a 9-fight win streak before succumbing to Angela Lee in 2019. As an athlete who hasn’t experienced a lot of losses in her MMA career, Xiong seems to have handled it like a pro- with grace and humility. She added:

“I don’t think it’s the winning or losing of a game that matters. What matters in the outcome is what you learn. To be able to see where you’re lacking, and to know yourself more clearly.”

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Xiong Jing Nan claps back at Angela Lee over negative comments

Xiong Jing Nan is the type of athlete who lets her fighting do all the talking. But recently, the Chinese star clapped back at Angela Lee over some negative comments from her.

In a promotional video for their trilogy fight, Lee expressed how unimpressed she was by Xiong’s latest performances. Lee claimed that Nan was “playing to not lose, instead of playing to win.”

The 34-year-old power puncher answered back with the following caption:

“We'll see if you are impressed when I finish you again👊#ONEonPrimeVideo2.”

In Xiong’s defense, ‘The Panda’ has nothing else to prove. She’s the first ever Chinese female world champion in MMA. She has successfully defended her belt six times against the best in the division, and has 4 knockout victories including one over Angela Lee in 2019.

If anyone needs to watch out, it should be Angela Lee because Xiong Jing Nan will not hold anything back come September 30.