“I knew that I kind of wanted to pursue this as a career” - Angela Lee went from learning self-defense to MMA world champion
Former undisputed ONE women's atomweight MMA world champion 'Unstoppable' Angela Lee of the United States learned how to defend herself at a very young age.
Of course, that was instilled in her by her parents -- father Ken and mother Jewelz. In fact, all members of the Lee family are martial artists. But Lee says learning self-defense was a must growing up.
In a recent guest appearance on Demetrious Johnson's YouTube show, 'Mighty Cast,' Lee talked about growing up in a martial arts household and how most of her days revolved around that.
'Unstoppable' said:
"It was straight into MMA, yeah. And because they had the whole concept of, Okay, we're gonna teach you self-defense, and in order to do that, we have to teach you everything from striking to the groundwork and everything in [between]. For me, I got most of my experience in grappling. My dad would put me in tournaments, a lot of them would be jiu-jitsu tournaments and so forth, judo and stuff"
Being around martial arts every single day, Lee quickly realized she wanted to turn it into a career, and soon, she decided to become a professional fighter. Lee added:
"When I graduated, I knew that I kind of wanted to pursue this as a career, and that's when I got involved in, you know, amateur MMA eventually turned pro and [that was] pretty much the story."
Angela Lee is thankful for her parents, who taught her how to fight: "They wanted us to be able to protect ourselves"
Former atomweight MMA queen 'Unstoppable' Angela Lee, now retired from professional competition, was one of the most talented mixed martial artists in the world at one point.
And she owes it all to her parents, who were both decorated martial arts world champions in their day. Lee says her parents molded her future and laid a path out for her success. In the same podcast, she said:
"They really wanted us to learn self-defense. They wanted us to be able to protect ourselves. And so yeah, that's kind of the journey that I followed until high school."