Angela Lee added another memorable finish to her fighting resume, submitting Stamp Fairtex in the second round of the main event of “One Championship: X” on Saturday in Singapore.
The Mililani High alumna, fighting for the first time since 2019, was within seconds of getting TKO’d in the first round before coming back and putting on a grappling clinic in Round 2, eventually securing a tapout at 4 minutes, 50 seconds with a rear-naked choke.
Lee improved to 11-2 overall and retained her atomweight world title, remaining undefeated at 115 pounds.
Fairtex dropped to 8-2.
“This moment right here is a dream come true for me,” Lee said in a postfight interview. “I wanted to be a world champion and I accomplished that in 2016 and today, March 26, 2022, I became the first mom champ in One Championship.”
Lee held her 10-month old-daughter, Ava Marie, in her arms while she spoke.
“This little girl right here, she’s the reason that you guys saw just the best performance from me,” Lee said. “I trained harder than ever, pushed myself more than ever. Because of her, because of my amazing team, I grew and I’ve transformed into this world champion that you see today.”
Lee said she avoided seeing Fairtex in the week leading up to the fight because she knew she would give her a hug.
The two fighters showed much respect for each other after a thrilling back-and-forth fight early on.
Lee came right at Fairtex from the opening bell, closing the distance and landing a few shots on the feet before tying up Fairtex and trying to take her down.
Fairtex avoided the takedown attempts and then badly hurt Lee two minutes into the fight with a left hook to the body that forced Lee to backpedal all the way across the cage.
Fairtex followed up with a flurry of shots and the referee motioned to step between the two fighters to end it but then stopped himself at the last second and let it continue.
“That body shot hurt, but I can tell you that my contractions that I was having when I was in labor hurt more than that,” Lee said. “But I’ve got to give credit to Stamp. She’s amazing.”
Lee managed to shoot for a takedown and then clinched with Fairtex, eventually taking her back with just over a minute to go.
Fairtex survived the final minute, but it was more of the same in the second round as Lee took her down less than 40 seconds in and gained side control.
Lee had Fairtex locked in a triangle and eventually secured an armbar, but Fairtex somehow got out of it.
Lee grappled her way back onto Fairtex’s back and nearly forced her to tap to a twister submission, but Fairtex again fought out of it.
Lee worked her way into full mount with 30 seconds left in the round and got Fairtex to tap out to a rear-naked choke seconds before the round ended.
Lee raised her hands in victory after the tap out and immediately started to cry before going over to hug Fairtex.
“She’s an amazing person. She trains hard, and to do what we do at the highest level, you have good days and you have harder days,” Lee said. “With my team, we work so hard so that we can power through when the days are tough and that’s what you saw in the first and second round.”
Lee was awarded a $50,000 bonus after the fight.
