After becoming the youngest world champion in mixed martial arts history, ONE Championship's Angela Lee has set her sights on some new goals for 2017.

Having defeated Mei Yamaguchi back in May at ONE: Ascent to Power, Lee had a frustrating rest of 2016 having suffered multiple injuries that caused her not fight for the rest of the year. Despite still enjoying her life as a champion, Lee is excited about doing what she loves doing the most--going out there and competing.

"Next year is going to be a really big year because it's going to be my first title defense," Lee told MMASucka. "I worked so hard to get the belt, but sometimes people say that it's actually harder to keep the belt than it is to work your way up to it.

"After the holidays, we are going to go back, train super hard as if I'm the contender and still not the champion. I think that's the attitude you have to have. I think you can get up there and become complacent and I think that's the downfall of a lot of champion. I'm definitely learning that from other fighters.

"I never want to relax and just think everything is ok because I'm the champion--I don't want that mindset. There so much more [room] for me to grow at as a fighter. My first title defense is crucial because I feel like I've got something to prove. I am the champion of this division and I'm going to prove that to everyone next year."



Although Lee is officially the ONE atomweight champion, that by definition means she's the champion of a 115-pound division due to ONE's different weight class classifications.

Fighting at the same weight as many of the other organizations around the world, it's easy for comparisons to be drawn between Lee's abilities and other champions such as UFC's Joanna Jedrzejczyk. When asked how well she thought she stacks up against the likes of the Polish champion, Lee was confident she could hang with them.   

"Honestly, I just think it's a whole lot of politics," Lee said in regards to be outside most strawweight division global rankings. "I don't even know whose these opinions are. I know who I am as a fighter and I know that you could put me against any other fighter in the world and I'd do just fine.

"For sure I could compete against them [the top five in the world], I wouldn't be in this sport if I didn't think I could compete against them. I'm happy with where I'm at right now and I'm only young so I'm improving every day and I'm sharpening my skill set."

To prove to everyone she is one of the best in the world, Lee says she will be looking to be very active in 2017 and is hoping to take multiple fights. It's currently strongly rumored that her in-cage activity could start as early as March in Bangkok, Thailand.

"This year after winning the title in May a bunch of things happened so I wasn't as active," Lee said. "Previously I was really active--I fought like five times last year.

"Hopefully in 2017 I can be super active and defend that title as many times as possible."