Hawaii’s Angela Lee won the inaugural ONE Champions women’s world atomweight title with a unanimous decision over Mei Yamaguchi on Friday at ONE: Ascent to Power in Kallang, Singapore.
Lee (6-0) is the first woman to win a world title in the organization and was fighting in the first ONE event headlined by a women’s fight.
A capacity crowd of 12,000 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium witnessed a fight that lived up its top billing on the card and lasted the full 25 minutes.
The 19-year-old former high school state wrestling champion at Mililani fell behind early against a spirited Yamaguchi (15-9-1), who had won her past three fights and was the world flyweight champion in the Deep Jewels organization.
Lee survived an overhand right to start the third round that dropped her. Yamaguchi, who has never been stopped in a fight, almost ended it with an armbar, but Lee survived.
Lee dominated the last two rounds with a variety of submission attempts and landed a hard kick to the gut in round five that stunned Yamaguchi.
Both fighters showed high-level grappling skills and Yamaguchi fought off countless submission attempts by Lee, who had never gone past the second round in a fight.
“I told you guys I was born for this moment right here,” Lee said after she was presented with the championship belt. “I worked really hard for this, but it I couldn’t do this by myself. It takes a whole army to build a champion, and I’m really lucky to be surrounded by amazing people.”
This was the first fight Lee failed to win via submission.
Yamaguchi nearly finished the fight seconds into the third round when she dropped Lee with a right hand and immediately pounced with a series of strikes on the mat. Lee eventually fought Yamaguchi off, then was caught in an armbar that was fully extended but somehow managed to survive.
“I’m just thinking I’ve got to survive this,” Lee said. “Mei is going to give all that she’s got and I’ve just got to take it and throw it right back at her.”
Lee’s brother, Christian, improved to 4-0 with a first-round submission victory over Cary Bullos (7-4) on the undercard.
Christian Lee choked out Bullos at the 2:07 mark with a brabo choke and has won all four of his professional fights by first-round stoppage.
