Trying his hand at martial arts
Schooling admits he's no match for ONE world champion Lee
It was a meeting of two sports personalities at the top of their game - Olympic 100m butterfly champion Joseph Schooling and ONE Championship's first female world champion Angela Lee.
They sparred in the ring yesterday at the Evolve MMA gym at Far East Square, with Angela, 20, and her brother Christian, 18, teaching Olympic champion Schooling, 21, and his good friend Tripp Cooper some basic MMA moves.
Of the session, Angela said: "It was awesome, Christian and I love teaching and sharing the knowledge of martial arts. We had a blast."
In a short question-and-answer segment after the session, Schooling, an MMA fan, revealed that he had done some boxing during his high school days.
Asked if he would incorporate MMA in his training, Schooling said: "I don't know but it's really great cardio. I just did it for 20 minutes and I'm already out of breath."
When a journalist asked him to predict the outcome of a street fight between himself and Angela, Schooling chuckled and said: "She'd kick my a**, for sure."
Angela has been in Singapore for the past few weeks, and was present at the ONE: Defending Honor event at the Indoor Stadium on Nov 11 as an ambassador.
She has just returned from an appearance at a business meeting in Jakarta yesterday morning, and flew back to the United States earlier this morning.
On her ambassadorial role, she said: "I just feel extremely honoured (to be in this position), I want to help grow the sport of martial arts.
"I really want to inspire and empower others, and it has been an inspiring journey so far."
The American, who fights out of Singapore, has been kept out of the ring as she awaits the first challenger to her belt.
She won the inaugural ONE Championship atomweight world title at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in May to be the MMA promotion's first female champion.
She may not have to wait too long to get her gloves back on, though.
"It has been a while, I have been used to fighting in back-to-back events and I know that everyone is used to seeing me all the time," said Angela.
"Trust me, I really miss it, and I will be back soon."
She insists her role as ambassador will not distract her from her primary task as a fighter and a champion.
Angela said: "When I fought for the title earlier this year, it was the most nerve-wracking experience I have ever had... and if I could overcome that to win the title, I can definitely defend it.
"I feel like a lot of weight has been taken off my shoulders, even though there is now a lot of expectations on me to defend my title.
"But, like I said in my post-fight speech in May, I am going to be a champion for a long time. I have trained extremely hard, and no one is going to take it away."
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