Victoria Lee brought plenty of amateur experience into her professional debut. She is also very familiar with the Singapore Indoor Stadium having seen her brother and sister fight there numerous times.
But competing at ONE: ‘Fists of Fury’ was still a very new experience for the 16 year old who seems to have enjoyed it,
“When I first got on stage and they were announcing my name it was crazy. It was so cool to be in the stadium with all the lights and the smoke and I really enjoyed it.”
Unfair advantage
She needed slightly longer than older siblings Angela Lee and Christian Lee had to get her debut win. Sunisa Srisen made it to the second round before being finished by the teenager with a rear naked choke.
Lee looked close to securing a rear naked choke in the opening round and thinks her opponent managed to get an unfair advantage by grapping her gloves,
“After I got the takedown I was looking for the rear naked choke but I wasn’t able to get it under the chin completely so I went to pound her out for the TKO but my hands were stuck, she was holding onto my gloves.”
Room for improvement
There was so much expectation surrounding Lee’s pro debut that some thought she might have been disappointed not to put Srisen away in under a round. The teenager admits there is room for improvement,
“I was happy that I finished the fight and came out with a victory but m always looking to improve myself and I can’t wait to get back in the gym.”
She won the 2019 IMMAF junior world championships as an amateur but says that nothing could prepare her for the experience of competing on a ONE Championship card for the first time,
“Of course I felt so much nerves, this is the biggest thing I’ve done in my entire life and I felt all of it when I was walking into the arena but when I stepped into the cage I blocked it all out and cleared my mind and focused on the fight.”‘
Right opportunity
Lee admits she made some mistakes in the opening round but is pleased to have corrected them in the second stanza,
“When I went into the second round it was just like how it was supposed to be, how it was supposed to go in the first. I cleared my mind and said ‘remember the gameplan’ and I waited foe the right opportunity. When I saw that her head popped up I was able to fully sink in the choke and squeeze.”
Lee is expected to have a successful career as a mixed martial artists because that’s what her older brother and sister have done. But there is a lot of pressure that comes with this expectation and she was relieved to walk away with a win,
“It was such a huge relief for me. There was so much building up to this fight, so much pressure, so much emotion and as soon as the fight was over it felt great.”
Same but different
Despite being familiar with the venue and having plenty of competitive experience at an amateur level Lee says stepping out onto the ONE Championship stage felt a little different,
“It was familiar to me though my experiences watching my brother and sister and competing (myself) on a smaller scale but it was also very different, the lights were brighter. It’s the same but it’s different.”
Having got a first taste of those bright lights Lee might be in a hurry to step into the ONE Championship cage for a second time. But she refused to call out any atomweights and sounds relaxed about her schedule,
“I don’t have a certain number of fights I want to do, I just want to compete as often as I can.”
Christian Lee has a title fight coming up while Angela Lee is expecting a baby. It is going to be a busy year for the family and Victoria Lee will be hoping to follow in their footsteps with a long run of ONE Championship wins.
