ONE X: ‘Mom champ’ Angela Lee submits Stamp Fairtex after early scare in Singapore
- ‘Unstoppable’ Lee weathers brutal body shot in first round before dominating Thai in atomweight title fight
- ‘That body shot hurt,’ champ admits – ‘but my contractions that I went through when I was in labour hurt more’
Angela Lee mounted a successful comeback in the main event of ONE X on Saturday night in Singapore, returning from a two-year absence – and the birth of her first child – to submit Thai challenger Stamp Fairtex.
Lee, a grappling specialist, looked to tie up early, and had some success doing so, but was soon badly stung by a body shot from her Thai challenger.
In an impressive display of grit, the champion powered through that scare to drag the action to the mat, where she threatened with submissions and ground and pound until the dramatic first round concluded.
“That body shot hurt,” Lee admitted in her post-fight interview with commentator Mitch Chilson. “But I can tell you that my contractions that I went through when I was labour hurt more than that.”
Round two saw Lee initiate another tie-up early, which she used to toss Stamp to the mat. Her grappling assault continued from there, as she swarmed her challenger with arm triangles, arm bars and rear-naked chokes throughout a procession of dizzying scrambles. The champion even threatened with a twister, which is among the rarest and most difficult submissions in MMA.
Stamp showed plenty of heart, fighting off submission after submission, but was ultimately overwhelmed. Lee locked up a rear-naked choke, and the tap came soon thereafter.
“I just keep fighting until the very, very end,” Lee (11-2) said of the finish. “I knew I had it, I was close to finishing, and I didn’t want to chance it. I squeezed it, I held it, and I was able to get the finish near the end of round two.”
“This moment right here is a dream come true for me,” she added. “I wanted to be a world champion. I accomplished that in 2016. Today I became the first ever Mom champ in ONE Championship.”
“I trained harder ever, pushed myself harder than ever. I grew and I transformed into this world champion you see.”
The win is Lee’s first since she defended her title with a submission win over strawweight champion Xiong Jingnan at the end of 2019.
Stamp (8-2), who previously held ONE’s atomweight Muay Thai and kickboxing titles, is back in the loss column after winning the promotion’s atomweight Grand Prix with a submission defeat wrestling star Ritu Phogat.
