SINGAPORE - Angela Lee hopes it will be third time lucky for her as she seeks to become One Championship's first two-weight female world champion next month.
She owns the atomweight title and has her eyes set on Xiong Jingnan's strawweight crown when the pair meet on Sept 30 in the main event of One on Prime Video 2 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
This will be the third instalment of their rivalry which has already seen two epic battles.
In an Instagram post on Monday (Aug 15), the Hawaii-based Lee, 26, said: "The trilogy fight is happening... going up in weight, trying to capture that double champs status. Going to take the strawweight belt, Xiong Jingnan."
In March 2019, Lee fell short in her bid to achieve the feat when she lost to Xiong via a technical knockout during the strawweight title bout in Tokyo.
The duo returned to the Japanese capital again in October and this time, it was Xiong seeking to make history as she dropped down a weight class and challenged for Lee's atomweight belt.
But Lee triumphed in dramatic fashion as she earned a dramatic rear-naked choke submission win with just 12 seconds remaining in the fifth and final round.
That was also the last time Lee stepped into the cage until March this year when she submitted former two-sport One world champion and recent One women's atomweight world grand prix champion Stamp Fairtex to retain her title.
Born in Canada to a Singaporean dad and a South Korean mum, Lee gave birth to her first child, Ava Marie, in April 2021.
She showed little signs of ring rust though in her fight with Stamp, submitting the Thai with 10 seconds left in the second round.
Xiong, 34, has been flawless since that narrow loss to Lee in 2019. She is on a three-bout winning streak, dominating Tiffany Teo, Michelle Nicolini and Ayaka Miura to retain her belt.
In an interview with One in April this year, Lee had said she was looking forward to facing Xiong again and believes that she is a better fighter now as compared to 2019.
She said: "I have grown a lot more in these past few years and made a lot more improvements than she has, and I think it can show in our performances.
"So definitely, when we (Lee and Xiong) match up again, it's going to be a different story, and I think everyone is eager to see it."
Her younger brother Christian, 24, is also preparing for his own championship rematch as he seeks to reclaim the lightweight world title he lost via a controversial unanimous decision last September.
He faces South Korea's Ok Rae-yoon, 31, in the headline bout of One 160 on Aug 26 at the Indoor Stadium.
