By Canadian Press

Fighters with Vancouver ties enjoy banner day on One Championship cards

Oct 13, 2019 | 9:17 AM

TOKYO — Vancouver-born (Unstoppable) Angela Lee and Vancouver-based bantamweight Bibiano (The Flash) Fernandes both successfully defended their One Championship MMA titles Sunday.

Lee (10-2-0) submitted China’s (The Panda) Xiong Jing Nan (14-2-0) via rear-naked choke with just 12 seconds remaining in their five-round atomweight fight. Brazil-born bantamweight Fernandes (24-4-0) choked out Kevin (The Silencer) Belingon (20-7-0) of the Philippines in the second round.

Lightweight champion Christian (The Warrior) Lee (13-3-0), Angela’s younger brother, won the Asia-based promotion’s lightweight World Grand Prix championship final with a decision over Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev (8-2-0) of Turkey.

One Championship celebrated its 100th live event by staging two separate “One Century” shows on the same day at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo despite Typhoon Hagibis. Organizers did warn spectators to take extra caution.

Angela Lee avenged her strawweight title loss to Xiong in March. Sunday’s fight was for Lee’s crown.

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Angela lived in Vancouver and elsewhere in Canada until she was seven, when the family moved to Hawaii. The 23-year-old now has dual Canadian-American citizenship.

Angela, who now splits her time between the Hawaiian island of Oahu and Singapore, comes from a fighting family. Father Ken and mother Jewelz are decorated martial artists who teach at their United MMA gym in Waipahu.

Ken was born in Singapore and Jewelz in South Korea. She moved to Hawaii at a young age while he came to Canada at the age of four. They met in Hawaii when Ken went there for high school, moving to Canada after graduation and eventually marrying.

Fernandes’ mother died when he was seven and he was sent to live with his aunt in the Amazon jungle. As a young teenager, he survived by selling ice cream on the streets and by cleaning cars and houses. He often opted for payment in food rather than money.

He was 14 when a benefactor paid for some jiu-jitsu lessons at a neighbourhood gym. Fernandes took to it quickly, and when money for the lessons ran out, he started cleaning the gym to pay his way.

Fernandes, now 39, was at a jiu-jitsu competition in California some 15 years ago when he was invited to come north and train. He liked what he saw and made Vancouver his home.

The first “One Century” show started at 9 a.m. local time and the second at 5 p.m. The two cards featured seven title fights in total.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2019.

The Canadian Press