Angela “Unstoppable” Lee, 19, became ONE Championship’s first female champion with a fiercely contested unanimous-decision win over Japanese veteran Mei Yamaguchi in front of Lee’s adopted home crowd at the main event in Singapore on Friday night.
In the co-main event, Brazil’s Roger Gracie choked out Poland’s Michal Pasternak in the first round to win ONE’s inaugural light-heavyweight title.
The 33-year-old Yamaguchi gave up a significant height and reach advantage, but nevertheless went into the fight planning to test the standup game of Lee, a dual citizen Canadian-American of Singaporean and South Korean heritage who had won all of her previous fights by submission.
Photo: AFP
However, Lee got the best of the early exchanges before clinching Yamaguchi against the cage, where the Japanese fighter landed knees to the body. Yamaguchi scored the first takedown after catching a high kick by Lee, but Lee instantly engineered a reversal to take top position. Yamaguchi struggled to her feet, but Lee slipped in a standing guillotine, then dropped into guard and secured a body-triangle. Yamaguchi appeared on the verge of tapping, but survived the choke attempt and escaped into half-guard to finish the round.
In round two, Lee landed a sharp one-two, which Yamaguchi answered with a head kick and an overhand right. Lee took Yamaguchi down, but this time it was Yamaguchi who reversed to take top.
However, Lee is a dangerous fighter on her back and attempted an arm-bar that again threatened to finish the fight, until Yamaguchi managed to stand and shake Lee off. The scenario repeated itself, with Yamaguchi again taking top after a takedown by Lee and escaping another arm-bar attempt by standing and shaking Lee off. Yamaguchi employed ground-and-pound before attempting a guillotine to finish the round.
Photo: AFP
A tumultuous, back-and-forth third frame began with Yamaguchi dropping Lee to the canvas with a thudding overhand right and leaping in to finish her with ground-and-pound in Lee’s guard. Lee weathered the initial onslaught, then kept Yamaguchi tight to neutralize her punches.
However, Yamaguchi took side control, then took full mount and rained down punches before taking a deep arm-bar. Lee escaped the submission attempt and seized full mount in a stunning reversal. Lee attempted a choke, but Yamaguchi reversed and sank another arm-bar. Lee escaped and sank an an arm triangle choke, which a breathless Yamaguchi survived to see out the round.
Lee began to take control of the fight in the championship rounds, keeping the action on the ground in the fourth round, in which a spirited Yamaguchi survived submission attempt after submission attempt.
By the fifth, Yamaguchi was clearly fatigued. The fighters initiated some furious exchanges, but Lee controlled the action on the ground, attempting numerous submission attempts, which Yamaguchi, who has never been submitted or knocked out in her career, survived.
Lee was overcome with emotion as the decision was announced and she took the ONE female atomweight title.
“I told you guys, I was born for this,” she said with tears streaming from her eyes.
The win improved Lee’s record to 6-0-0, while Yamaguchi’s fell to 15-9-1.
In a battle of former champions on the undercard, Mongolia’s Narantunglag Jadambaa choked out Japan’s Kotetsu Boku in the third.
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