“You gotta make the most of it” - Angela Lee urges fighters to use their time wisely and plan their future
Retired ONE Championship superstar Angela Lee knows all too well that a career in fighting can be fleeting, which is why she is encouraging fighters to plan their future wisely while they are still in the height of their careers.
The former ONE atomweight MMA world champion spoke about this during her session on Demetrious Johnson's YouTube podcast, which was recorded in Hawaii and dropped on Wednesday.
Lee, 28, urged fighters to make good use of their time competing to plan well for their lives after it so as to have them enjoy the fruits of their work.
She said:
"I think it's like, you know, that window of time that you have while you're fighting. It's like, you gotta make the most of it because after the fact, like, what are you gonna go into? And that's why so may people, you know, so many fighters, they'll go back, they'll retire, they go back to fighting."
Check out what she had to say below, beginning at 58:32:
Angela Lee retired from competition in September last year to focus on the next chapter of her life, including as mother to her daughter, Ava Marie. But before she called it a career, she was already on a self-imposed break to mourn the untimely passing of her younger sister, and fellow ONE fighter, Victoria at the age of 18 in December 2022.
'Unstoppable' rode into the sunset as an undefeated champion who successfully defended the ONE atomweight title five times.
Angela Lee looks back at her early years competing with fondness
Angela Lee is no longer competing but said she had a grand time while at it when she was tearing it up early in her ONE Championship journey.
The American-Canadian fighter called it a career in September last year after a highly successful eight-year run in the 'Home of Martial Arts', where she dominated the atomweight MMA lane as its longtime champion. She went to retirement at the age of 27 at that time to focus on the next chapter of her life.
Speaking on the Keep It Aloha podcast earlier this year, Angela Lee looked back at the kind of path early on in ONE, saying:
"It was a lot. It was intense. Everything happened so quickly. I believe when I got signed to ONE Championship in that first year I had [four] fights in a year back to back.
"And that time, you know, when I got signed and I was fighting, I was just on top of the world. I was this young teenager just fresh out of high school and doing what I love so everything was new and I was just brightly taking it all in, you know, and it was fun."
While she has stepped away from competition, Angela Lee's brother, Christian, the reigning lightweight and welterweight MMA champion, is still in the game and is set to make his return to action after two years in November in the United States.
Another brother, Adrian, is also now competitng in ONE and made a winning debut in June.