Angela Lee believes maintaining good physical and mental health will be of equal importance for the next generation of combat sports superstars.
Since the tragic passing of her sister and MMA hopeful Victoria Lee last year, the former ONE atomweight MMA world champion has made it her mission to share her struggle with mental health and give a voice to those who are still getting by thanks to his non-profit organization FightStory. .
Speaking to Hawaii News Now, Angela Lee believes that the mental and physical aspects of mixed martial arts are undeniably linked and that her experience in the sport has set the stage for the work she does through Fight story.
“I actually feel like they’re very connected, and on my journey through martial arts and MMA, I feel like I was meant to take this path and walk this path so I could talk about what I’m doing now when it comes to mental health,” Lee says.
After winning the ONE atomweight world title at age 19, Lee built a career as one of the most successful fighters in the history of the sport.
With 11 career wins, “Unstoppable” has established an incredible 82 percent win rate, with eight of his victories coming via submission.
Angela Lee says MMA and mental health are ‘pretty much the same thing’
Entering the circle at ONE Fight Night 14 in September, Angela Lee filed his atomic weight title and announced his retirement from MMA. Today, Lee hopes to help the next generation of athletes succeed by taking care of their mental health as well as their physical health.
“MMA is very physical, you know, but it incorporates that mental health aspect and speaks to both sides because they are very similar,” Lee continued.
“And I think that’s going to be the key to talking to this next generation of kids and young people, you know, sharing that what you do in your sport or how physical health affects your mental health and that your mental health is going to affect your physical health, etc.
Throughout his iconic career, Lee has faced and beat some of the biggest names in women’s MMA, including wins over ONE strawweight world champion Xiong Jing Nan, the promotion’s only three-sport titleholder, Stamp Fairtex, and two-time Japanese icon Mei Yamaguchi.
