Longtime ONE Atomweight World Champion “Unstoppable” Angela Lee believes that her rival in ONE Women’s Strawweight World Champion “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan may have gotten too comfortable in her last few defenses.
Lee knows all about Xiong, as she’s shared the Circle with her twice already, accumulating one loss and one win.
While the Chinese heavy hitter has remained dominant, Lee thinks that her fire has been dwindling in recent performances.
“I feel like when I watched Xiong in [those recent defenses], she was not fighting to win—she was fighting not to lose,” Lee told ONEFC.com.
“Sometimes when you’re champion for a while, you become stagnant and you’re just fighting to keep your belt, not fighting to win and destroy every person that’s in front of you.”
Fans have also criticized Xiong, so it would be fair to assume that she’s heard it all. Because of that, this match could actually be the perfect time for the Chinese superstar to respond to those critics by making a point.
At least that’s what Lee expects from Xiong.
“I do think that she’s going to hear that, she’s going to get angry and think that she wants to make a statement in this fight,” Lee said.
“She wants to prove to everyone that, ‘No, I’m still dangerous. I’m a killer. I’m a finisher.’ And so I’m not going to be overlooking her and using her previous fights as something to base my assumptions of her on.”
With the match less than two weeks away, Lee is confident that she has done the necessary preparations for this trilogy, and she’s confident that she can get the early finish.
“The preparation has been great, and I’m confident because she didn’t experience my full game yet, but I think I think I’ve experienced hers. So I think that’s going to be to my advantage,” she said.
“Definitely, I’ll be looking to take her out in the early rounds, and I feel like her game plan is to take me out in later rounds. We’ll see who gets what they want.”
Meanwhile, the newest hit reality TV show “ONE Warrior Series Philippines” continues every Sunday night on GTV, the ONE Super App, and watch.onefc.com. Weekly replays will also air on Tap Go, ONE Championship Philippines Facebook, and ONE Championship’s official YouTube channel.
