Reigning One Championship atomweight titlist Angela Lee
will have to put her dreams of being a two-division queen on
hold.
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One CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced via
Facebook on Monday that Lee has withdrawn from a scheduled
clash against strawweight champion Jingnan
Xiong at the promotion’s
”Heart of the Lion” event on Friday. A back injury forced Lee
out of the event.
“I am bummed to announce that our medical team has deemed One
Atomweight world champion Angela Lee unfit to compete in One ‘Heart
Of The Lion’ this Friday, November 9,” Sityodtong wrote. “As such,
I have made the decision to pull Angela off the card, despite her
adamance to compete still in the world title fight against One
strawweight world champion Jingnan Xiong.
“We all know that Angela is a warrior with an unbreakable spirit.
However, she suffered a serious back injury in training last week
and badly herniated a spinal disc; she was unable to walk just a
few days ago,” he continued. “Doctors suspect that the injury
originally happened last year when Angela's car flipped five times
on the highway in her near-death accident. If it was up to her, she
would still compete this week, even if it meant walking into the
cage on crutches.”
Lee offered further detail on the injury in an Instagram post:
“[Two] weeks ago, I was training and I felt like something got
strained in my back,” Lee wrote. I rested for a day, got a massage
and went back to train. The next day, the pain got worse. And the
next few days after that, the pain increased to the point where I
couldn’t even sit or stand. There was a sharp, shooting pain in my
lower back and it radiated all the way to my toes.
“I went to get an MRI and the results came in. There is a disk
between my L4-L5 vertebrae that is cracked. They call this a
bulging disk, which causes pressure on the nerve. I’ve been dealing
with constant sharp nerve pain, sciatica and muscle spasms.”
The 22-year-old Lee is 9-0 as a professional while competing
exclusively under the One Championship banner. She last fought on
May 18, when she outpointed Mei
Yamaguchi to defend her atomweight belt for a third time.
One Championship “Heart of the Lion” will now be headlined by a
bantamweight title unification bout between Bibiano
Fernandes and Kevin
Belingon. The event takes place at Singapore Indoor Stadium in
Kallang, Singapore.