By:  | October 1, 2022 12:44 pm

Xiong Jing Nan claimed a unanimous decision win over Angela Lee in their trilogy bout at the Singapore Indoor Stadium this morning. The strawweight title fight headlined ONE on Prime Video 3.

The two fighters had shared a win apiece in the previous two meetings. There didn’t seem to be much to choose between them heading into the third fight but Xiong totally dominated Lee in the opening round.

She twice dropped the atomweight champion with right hands and landed knees to the head of her grounded opponent as well as a barrage of ground and pound with referee Herb Dean seemingly on the verge of calling off the contest. But Lee somehow survived long enough to hear the bell and get a much needed minute’s rest.

Refocused and reenergized 

She came out refocused and reenergized at the start of the second round and landed a right hand of her own before dropping for a takedown. With her arms locked around Xiong’s neck she landed some knees to the head from the clinch before dropping for the submission.

Xiong landed a sold up kick and sprang back to her feet. The round finished with both fighters trading punches and Lee appeared to have weathered the storm and worked her way back into the fight.

At the start of the third round Lee dropped for another takedown but got her distances wrong which allowed Xiong to chase her across the cage throwing punches and push kicks. The challenger landed a solid looking elbow from the clinch but the pace had dropped with the champion backing up and taunting her.

Marching forwards

Xiong continued to retreat in the fourth round as Lee marched forwards looking to close the distance. She did succeed in landing a body kick but at a knee towards the end of the round as her opponent timed a single leg takedown attempt.

In the fifth round Lee got an early takedown and the fight seemed to be in the balance. But Xiong escaped and landed a right hand, content to see the fight out in the knowledge that she had done enough work in the first five minutes to take the decision.

Lee deserves credit for surviving the first round and pressuring Xiong constantly for the final 20 minutes of the fight. But all three judges saw the contest in favour of the champion who improves to 18-2 while her opponent drops to 11-3 after her third straight loss in the strawweight division.

Best of the rest

Earlier in the evening Stamp Fairtex (9-2) was able to cement her status as the #1 atomweight with a decision win over Jihin Radzuan (8-3). An elbow from the Muay Thai fighter dropped the Malaysian in the third round and she went to work with ground and pound to give the judges no option but to vouch for her.

ONE on Prime Video 2, Singapore, October 1st
Xiong Jing Nan def. Angela Lee via Decision (Unanimous)
Submission Grappling:  Mikey Musumeci def. Cleber Sousa via Decision (Unanimous)
Stamp Fairtex   def. Jihin Radzuan via Decision (Unanimous)
Ilya Freymanov def. Martin Nguyen via TKO (Knees) at 3:33 of R1
Halil Amir def. Timofey Nastyukhin via KO (Punches) at 0:58 of R2
Kickboxing: Marat Grigorian def. Tayfun Özcan via Decision (Unanimous)
Oh Ho Taek def. Ryogo Takahashi via Decision (Split)