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Stephen Foote

One Championship golden girl Angela Lee has revealed the deep emotional impact her recent two-fight losing streak had on her, particularly the TKO defeat at the hands of strawweight champion Xiong Jingnan.
Lee's bid to become a dual-division champion fell short in devastating fashion in Tokyo at the end of March, where she suffered a fifth-round TKO loss – the first of her professional career.
For someone so accustomed to victory, it was a tough pill to swallow – one that left a long and bitter aftertaste, which was only worsened with a shock upset by Michelle Nicolini just three months later.
“The first loss of my career definitely had a huge impact on me,” Lee told the Post. “I went into a bit of a depression and I was upset, and then right after that, the fight in July [against Nicolini] not going my way.

“As a fighter, I'm never scared of my opponents but I’m scared that I'm not able to perform to the best of my abilities, and in the first two fights of the year, that's what I felt like.”
Before the start of 2019, the 23-year-old had been on a staggering three-year streak of dominance.
Sage Northcutt drops to featherweight after savage One KO
“Unstoppable” tore through all comers to capture the atomweight title amid a nine-fight undefeated stretch, and Lee confessed she may have started to take winning for granted.
“Especially when everything is going good for so long,” she said. “A loss like this kind of shakes things up and says, ‘Hey, there’s urgency to this and you need to stay on top of it’, because there are contenders climbing up the ranks and they're all gunning for you.
“I'm definitely keeping that in the back of my mind coming into 2020, because I know that the atomweight division has been busy with a lot of new fighters, a lot of new contenders.”

Lee’s dramatic last-gasp submission win in her rematch with Xiong in Tokyo in October helped lift a dark cloud that had been hanging over her head, and taught her a few life lessons.
“I feel like I’m a lot more mature with how I’m dealing with things,” Lee said. “I had my breakdowns, I had my crying all out of me. You can’t just sulk about it – you have to do something about it. That’s how you grow and that’s how you become a better person.
“I went back to the gym and trained harder than ever before. It felt like the beginning of my career – when I was so hungry to fight and so hungry to train.

“That last win was a great feeling especially when all the hard work pays off in the fight, and I'm so proud of how far I came this year.”
Lee will look to go one step further next year by adding that elusive strawweight belt by getting the better of Xiong one more time, in a trilogy fight she hints is close to a done deal.
“Definitely. It’s bound to happen. I can’t say anything more than that, but it’s bound to happen in 2020,” she said. “I definitely want to defend my belt but I'm also gunning for the strawweight title.”


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‘Unstoppable’ describes deep emotional impact two-fight losing streak had on her
Lee ‘gunning for that strawweight title’ and says third Xiong fight ‘bound to happen’



Angela Lee describes deep emotional impact of two-fight losing streak, but is ‘gunning for that strawweight title’ with third Xiong Jingnan bout ‘bound to happen in 2020’.


Angela Lee

One Championship: Angela Lee talks depression after first defeats, and hints Xiong Jingnan trilogy is close

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} ‘Unstoppable’ describes deep emotional impact two-fight losing streak had on her Lee ‘gunning for that strawweight title’ and says third Xiong fight ‘bound to happen’

‘Unstoppable’ describes deep emotional impact two-fight losing streak had on her

Lee ‘gunning for that strawweight title’ and says third Xiong fight ‘bound to happen’