“You don't have to go back to fighting” – Angela Lee recalls how Victoria Lee urged her to create Fightstory

Newly retired Angela Lee said in setting up her non-profit organization Fightstory she got a lot of support from her late sister and fellow ONE Championship fighter Victoria Lee.

The former ONE women’s atomweight mixed martial arts world champion recently formed Fightstory to help people like her dealing with mental health struggles go through life. It is something she said is part of the next chapter of her journey.

In an interview session with The Aloha Hour, ‘Unstoppable’ recalled how Victoria Lee was very much part of the formation of the non-profit through constant encouragement for her to go for it, seeing how she and many other people would stand to benefit.

Angela Lee said:

“The idea of the non-profit came to me and I think Victoria was kind of pushing me to this idea of, you know, you can do this, you don't have to go back to fighting, you do this so, you know, I started working on the non-profit and started from just an idea and now it's developed into you know something today and I gave it a lot of thought.”

“Sometimes I'd be like no, I think I can do it and then there would be other days where I'd just be so down, so emotional, and I'm like there's no way I can do this.”

Watch the interview below:

Victoria Lee passed away in December last year at the age of 18. It was later revealed by Angela Lee herself that her sister took her own life.

Following the tragic loss, the Singaporean-American combat sports athlete took an indefinite leave from competing. But she eventually decided to retire from the game at 27 years old, making it official back in September at ONE Fight Night 14 on Prime Video.

Angela Lee became the ONE atomweight MMA world champion in 2016 and successfully defended it five times. Before she went into retirement, she vacated the belt. For her ONE MMA career, she compiled a record of 11-3.

As for Fightstory, she said reception to it has been warm, with a lot of people signifying their intention to help in whatever way possible. It is a development they welcome and serves as a motivation for them to continue pushing for their cause.