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Hawaii’s Angela Lee wins mixed martial arts championship fight

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  • COURTESY ONE CHAMPIONSHIP

    Mililani’s Angela Lee became ONE Championship’s first female champion today at ONE:Ascent to Power at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore.

Mililani alum Angela Lee became ONE Championship’s first female champion with a unanimous decision over Mei Yamaguchi to claim the inaugural women’s world atomweight title today at ONE: Ascent to Power at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore.

Lee (6-0) was fighting in the first ONE event headlined by a women’s fight.

The 19-year-old former high school state wrestling champion with the Trojans survived an overhand right to start the third round that dropped her within the first 10 seconds. Yamaguchi (15-9-1), who has never been stopped in a fight, almost ended it with an armbar but Lee survived.

Lee dominated the last two rounds with a variety of submission attempts and landed a hard kick to the gut in round five that stunned Yamaguchi.

“I told you guys I was born for this moment right here,” Lee said after she was presented with the championship belt. “I worked really hard for this but it I couldn’t do this by myself. It takes a whole army to build a champion and I’m really lucky to be surrounded by amazing people.”

This was the first fight Lee failed to win via submission. She had never been past the second round.

Lee’s brother, Christian, improved to 4-0 with a first-round submission victory over Cary Bullos (7-4) on the undercard.

Christian Lee choked out Bullos at the 2:07 mark with a brabo choke and has won all four of his professional fights by first-round stoppage.

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    • I’ve never heard of One Championship, must be another second tier organization like Bellator or King of the cage.
      She’s gotta fight in the UFC if she wants to compete with the best fighters.

      • It’s a lower tiered event with probably small payoff. She’s being exploited in Asia because of her looks and ethnicity (besides the obvious skills). The promoters are going to ride her as long as there’s money to be had by parading her in front of all the blood seeking zombies (fans). There’s no mention of how much money she makes probably because it’s pittance compared to what the promoter rakes in. This as another example1 of sexploitation that’s all made possible by the blood thirsty zombies.

  • Yea! Punch your opponent! Kick her in the head! Again. Then choke her! Maybe pull off one of her limbs! Maybe there will be lots of blood shooting out of her head. Way to go Angela, you make us all proud.

    • We get it. You don’t like MMA. Typical overreaction to martial arts fighting. These people train for years to perfect the skill needed to compete at this level and you don’t see the skill displayed. Go back to your sofa, cheetos and diet cokes and continue to live your soft life. The problem with our society today is that we have created a culture of sitting around playing video games and watching TV and think that is what life is all about. This young lady will be successful in life because she understands what hard work, discipline and commitment is and what it means to persevere to reach your goals.

      • Or, she’ll end up like B.J. “Just scrap” B.J. Don’t try to see things through other’s perspective, just scrap. Don’t love thy neighbor, just scrap. Whenever there is a time to make a difference and be a roll model for the young trying to navigate this crazy world, just scrap.
        “These people train for years to perfect the skill needed to bludgeon another person and knock their teeth out”. The spend hours perfecting ways to stop the blood flow to the brain.
        Getting hit in the head so hard your brain swells, over and over again. She’ll be successful in life because she can damage the health of dozens of other women that had a rough upbringing.
        Michael Vick was a criminal for his involvement in dog fighting. Does this mean Dana White will spend time in jail?
        Tell me what’s wrong with society Mr. Know it all.

        • Uh, no she won’t. Angela is not only a gifted athlete but also a bright, hard-working, appreciative, and respectful individual who is supported by a caring family and a whole community of fans. Perhaps it’s wiser to make personal comments about people you actually know. Just a suggestion.

        • To make the “sport” even more exciting, there needs to be some minor adjustments to the rules. First, eye gouging is a must. Maybe it should be encouraged, with some extra points in there. Then, a small metal weapon would be awesome. Some sort of shank like in prison. (It would really be beneficial for their life after MMA) Think how wild the crowd would get if there was actually a stream of blood shooting into the air. All this choking them into submission and watching them lose consciousness is starting to get boring.
          Maybe some two-on-one would spice things up. Like an inner city mugging.

      • The guy didn’t say there’s no skill involved in beating another human being to a pulp. No doubt she trains hard and has the skills but SO WHAT? It’s not a skill nor a profession that’s good for her long term unless being a dodo like you is exemplary.

      • The problem with our society is that it’s filled with dodos like you who can’t see that beating another human being to a pulp for “entertainment” is unacceptable.

  • Go Angela!!! You are awesome, strong, and a positive role model for young women. Congratulations on achieving your championship!!!
    Congratulations to Christian also. Both of you must make your Dad proud!!!

  • It’s good to see Hawaii finally recognizing one of it’s true super-stars, and phenom. Angela is amazingly talented and at such a young age, just so much skill for one person. She still has a lot of potential growth in her skills set, but she is a very good student of martial arts and a quick learner. As she has said, “I was born to do this…” and it shows.

      • The fact that no one can report how much she made basically tells me that it was very little. Exploited for her looks, personality, and skills and will continue to be exploited until she’s no longer a draw than dropped like a bag of garbage for the next “star”.

  • Professional athletes have to make money while they can. Someday she’ll have to retire. But, like any professional athlete she’ll have done something. Hopefully she doesn’t get hurt in the process. Better than working at McDonalds.

    • Thousands of young people who work/worked at Mac. made something of themselves without risking brain damage. It may be a better trade off than what this lady is doing.

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