Mililani’s Angela Lee said she had no idea what was happening.
After getting rocked with a series of punches in the fifth round of the main event of One: Century on Sunday in Tokyo, Lee managed to suplex challenger Xiong Jing Nan to the mat and submit her with 12 seconds remaining to retain her atomweight title.
Lee (10-2) worked a rear-naked choke to force Jing Nan (14-2) to tap out in a successful return to 115 pounds.
Lee had lost her past two fights, including her first professional defeat to Jing Nan earlier this year when she went up in weight to challenge for the strawweight title.
Jing Nan (14-2), the 125-pound champion, came down in weight to go for a second belt and ended up with her first loss with the company.
“Honestly it feels like a dream right now,” Lee said after the fight. “I just feel like I am dreaming still and I’m going to wake up and have to fight.”
Similar to the first fight, Jing Nan got the better of Lee standing, but Lee was able to take Jing Nan to the mat.
Lee ended the second round on top of Jing Nan after a single-leg takedown and then controlled Jing Nan from her back in the third.
Lee was knocked down with a punch in the fourth round and then grimaced as she took a series of shots in the fifth before taking down Jing Nan with a belly-to-back suplex that put her in possession to go for the rear-naked choke.
“Honestly that last round I was rocked,” Lee said. “I really didn’t know what I was doing. All I could hear was my dad and brother who was in my corner.”
Her brother Christian Lee, who holds the lightweight world title, won his fight earlier in the evening with a decision over Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev to win the lightweight world grand prix as a late replacement.
One Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong said after the fight that the two might not be done with each other.
I definitely think both of them want a trilogy (fight) and I think the fans want a trilogy (fight),” Sityodtong said. “Two incredible warriors. Two incredible world champions. I expect to see them again. I don’t know if it’s right away, but I think there is a good chance it will be right away. I don’t know for whose belt.”
Lee (13-3) agreed to step in for an injured Eddie Alvarez on three weeks’ notice and wore down Arslanaliev (8-2), who was visibly fatigued by the start of the second round.
Lee had Arslanaliev mounted four different times in the fight.
His lightweight title, which he won in May defeating Shinya Aoki, was not on the line.
The four-bout main card was broadcast live in the United States for the first time on TNT.
