Angela Lee Reveals Where She Has The Edge Against Michelle Nicolini

Just two days before she faces Michelle Nicolini in the co-main event of ONE: MASTERS OF DESTINY, “Unstoppable” Angela Lee sat down with ONE Championship commentator Michael “The Voice” Schiavello for an exclusive interview to preview the match.

This Friday, 12 July, the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion will stay in the strawweight division for the second match in a row to face the legend of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

This is actually the Singaporean’s fourth match in the division, and she was in a relaxed mood as she discussed her preparation to face an eight-time BJJ World Champion.

“For each fighter, we prepare differently. We see what their strengths and weaknesses are and prepare a strategy for them. Everything is coming together pretty nicely,” she said.

“We do know her background, where her strengths are, where her weaknesses are, but being the martial artist she is, we’re sure she’s looking to improve herself every day, so we’re not going to take this fight lightly.”

The 23-year-old also revealed how she has rediscovered an old mindset, which she hopes will bring about the kind of performance that saw her score a long streak of finishes in the early part of her career.

Though Lee admitted it took a little time to get over her defeat to “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan in March, she should be back to her very best against Nicolini.

“I guess it’s going back to when I first started competing, and this deep desire where I just want to go in there and finish everybody. That’s what I kind of went back to – the desire to work hard and be the best.

“When a fighter takes a loss, especially the first one, it’s not an easy thing to deal with. Having the competitive nature that I have, there [were] days where I’d be completely fine, but there would be days where I would be down and hard on myself.

“It took a while, but I finally managed to break through that with the help of my family. They didn’t let me stay there too long, they pulled me back up, shook things off, and got me ready to go again.

“It’s hard. Everyone deals with things differently. For me, it’s not really something that can be rushed. You can say, ‘You did great, just move on with it,’ but it’s really up to you to be at peace with things, and then make a decision to move on.

“You just take the time that you need to, do whatever makes you happy in the meantime to get your spirits up, and then when you’re ready, you’re ready.”

Now back to her old self, Lee is feeling good about her prospects in this highly-anticipated bout.

Some analysts have suggested she will need to employ a striking-heavy game plan to defeat the legend of the ground game, but the Evolve and United MMA representative believes there will be a lot more to the match than that, and that is how she will have the edge.

“One of my specialties that I feel confident in is combining everything in the fight, and making it a mixed martial arts fight – mixing up the ranges – so that’s what I’m looking to do on Friday,” she explained.

“I’m sure she’s working hard to round off the rest of her game. For any mixed martial arts fighter in this day and age, it’s kind of a must – you need to keep up with the times – but I think she’s pretty set in her ways at the same time.

“Her grappling is going to be what she goes back to, and I’m pretty set on that.”

With that in mind, when asked for a prediction, Lee did not hesitate to predict a quick knockout.