Victoria Lee: The story of ONE Championship’s MMA fighter who died at 18 years old

I have met many of the famous fighting Lee family and their entourage, when watching Angela and Christian Lee compete several times at ONE Championship events in 2019 and 2022.

They are a personable bunch, who travel en masse and stick together. They packed out the media rooms before and after Christian won his second MMA title in November, watching on proudly and hanging on his every word as I interviewed him, while his and Angela’s young daughters ran around causing harmless havoc.

But I was really looking forward to watching their younger sibling fight live in person for the first time this weekend, with Victoria Lee finally set to return – after more than 15 months out – against India’s Zeba Bano at ONE on Prime Video 6 in Bangkok.

Tragically, Victoria died at the age of 18 on Dec 26. The news was confirmed on Sunday (Jan 8) by Angela Lee.

“Please, check on your loved ones. Keep checking on them. Give them hugs and tell them how much they mean to you,” ONE’s atomweight champion wrote.

There is something especially sad about generational young athletes not fulfilling their destinies, and winning the trophies and titles their immense talent demanded – even more so when their lives end too soon.

An atomweight in mixed martial arts, Victoria’s rapid rise to prominence – three quick finishes in three fights for ONE – all came in 2021, amid the coronavirus pandemic, at a closed-door Singapore Indoor Stadium. I watched her from home in Hong Kong, in awe.

An understandable sadness has been cast over Jan 14’s event now. Eighteen is just too young, and especially for someone so prodigiously gifted.

That was even her nickname – The Prodigy – and an apt moniker it was.

Victoria Sun-hei Lee was born on May 17, 2004 in Wahiawa, Hawaii, to