Advertisement

Victoria Lee More Prepared For Second Fight in ONE Championship

Teenage sensation Victoria Lee may have had to battle a few nervous jitters in her ONE Championship debut earlier this year, in addition to battling whoever she was in the Circle with.

Lee says she learned a lot in her first fight with ONE. With support from her family, the 16-year-old believes she is now more prepared for her second fight for the world’s largest martial arts organization.

“I overall enjoyed the whole experience. I do wish my family could have come with me but the COVID restrictions in Singapore were very strict. I was just lucky enough to just have my mom and dad be there,” Lee told ONE Championship.

Before deciding to become a professional mixed martial artist, however, Lee had accompanied her older siblings Angela and Christian overseas whenever they had scheduled fights in Asia. She had gotten accustomed to the travel, the craziness of fight week, and the nuances of professional fighting.

So when she made her debut against Thailand’s Sunisa Srisen last February, Lee said she already knew what to expect.

“Experiencing the whole fight week, in my debut fight, there’s a lot of familiarity, but also it felt different because I was able to see the process from my brother and sister competing,” Lee said.

“I kind of knew the flow of the interviews and the photoshoots and stuff. But being in the seat, answering the questions, and being in the center taking the pictures is a completely different experience than looking out.”

Lee ended up putting together an impressive performance, submitting Srisen in the second round with a rear-naked choke, all while making it look terribly easy. However, she revealed after the fight that she did have to deal with a bit of nerves.

Inside the Circle in her post-fight interview with Mitch Chilson, Lee lost her train of thought. “What was the question again?” she asked Chilson while laughing.

Of course, it’s to be expected. Lee is, after all, only 16. Regardless, her first experience in ONE Championship laid the foundation of what fans and observers expect to be a fruitful career.

“I feel like the things — going into my last fight, listening to my coaches explain it to me, now I have the experience as well as the knowledge from them,” Lee said.

Lee is scheduled to return to action against China’s Wang “Little Sprouts” Luping at ONE: BATTLEGROUND, which broadcasts live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore on Friday, 30 July.

“The Prodigy” feels confident she can put forth an even better performance now that she’s more comfortable in the Circle.

“I think that I’ve been able to take away a lot of experience from that [first] fight. Going into this next fight, I feel a lot more prepared. I know exactly the flow of how things are going to go,” Lee said.

“I think that my next opponent is more experienced than the last. I think that she is a well-rounded, power-based fighter, and I think that our styles match up well. This is going to be a good fight for me.”

ONE: BATTLEGROUND marks ONE Championship’s much-anticipated return in the second half of 2021. In the main event, Thai legend Sam-A Gaiyanghadao defends his ONE Strawweight Muay Thai World Title against young phenom Prajanchai PK.Saenchai Muaythaigym.

In the co-main event, former two-division ONE World Champion Aung La N Sang takes on Leandro Ataides in a pivotal middleweight clash.