“I found my spark” - Angela Lee continues to champion mental health nearly a year after retiring from MMA
Angela Lee continues to fight the good fight outside the cage.
Nearly a year after officially retiring from mixed martial arts, the inaugural ONE women's atomweight MMA world champion carries on with her advocacy for better mental health among athletes and non-fighters alike.
Sharing Nainoa Langer's short yet somber video on Instagram, Lee wrote a captivating poem about how she rose from being a fighter inside the Circle to a warrior helping others cope with their internal struggles.
"There is a fire in me, that you can never put out. My fighting spirit. My flame. And we all have it. Sometimes it may be dim or hard to find. Sometimes, it may almost be out. But a little spark, is all we need, to help us find our way back," Angela Lee wrote in one part of her poem.
She added:
"I found my spark. My community. And in fighting that, I found me."
Lee rose to combat sports prominence when she burst onto the scene in her ONE Championship debut in 2015.
In just her sixth fight, and after five straight submission wins, Lee outclassed Japanese women's MMA pioneer Mei Yamaguchi to become the inaugural ONE women's atomweight MMA world champion in May 2016.
She has since successfully defended the gold five times before relinquishing the throne in September 2023 at ONE Fight Night 14.
Lee also founded the non-profit organization FightStory in memory of her late sister Victoria, who tragically passed away in December 2022.
Angela Lee gives her support to embattled Smilla Sundell at ONE Fight Night 22
Smilla Sundell had a bittersweet campaign in her last outing at ONE Fight Night 22.
The Swedish sensation failed to make weight for her world title defense against Natalia Diachkova and was promptly stripped of the ONE women's strawweight Muay Thai world title.
Distraught with how her world title reign came to an end, Sundell was beside herself a day before the fight.
That was until she received a message from Angela Lee.
Sundell would knock Diachkova out in the card's main event, and she revealed in an interview with Sportskeeda MMA that Lee reached out after she relinquished the gold.
"I didn't know how much I needed that. But it really helped. Having them supporting me helped me a lot. I have my family, but sometimes when other fighters tell me they feel the same, it makes me feel a lot better. It helps me. It helped me get going today."