SINGAPORE – She had promised it would be a quick title defence, even though many regarded Istela Nunes as Angela Lee’s toughest challenge to date.

On Friday night (May 26), the youngest-ever mixed martial arts (MMA) world champion made her words count as she successfully retained her ONE atomweight world championship belt in spectacular fashion.

With an expertly-executed anaconda choke 2min 18sec into the second round, Lee ensured that the 24-year-old Nunes became the latest victim of her winning streak that now stands at 8-0.

And the moment the Brazilian two-time muay thai world champion submitted in pain, the partisan full-house Singapore Indoor Stadium crowd roared in approval as a jubilant Lee jumped up in celebration.

“There’s always pressure, always nerves, especially (fighting) in Singapore, I’m not going to deny that,” said the 20-year-old, who won her inaugural world bout at the same venue one year ago.

“But I went and looked out and saw the amazing turnout we had tonight, it was kind of electrifying and I kind of took in all that energy and used it as a motivating factor.”

Lee, who was coming off a first successful title defence in March against Taiwanese Jenny Huang, was certainly not short on support.

Born in Canada to a Singaporean father and South Korean mother, the Hawaii-based fighter walked out with Olympic swimming champion Joseph Schooling, while chants of “Singapore, Singapore” echoed from the crowd during her time in the cage.

Lee could not hide her delight at how the fight went, particularly as she had to overcome illness in the lead-up to it.

“It was just a very tough battle with myself, kind of just overcoming my own doubts,” she said.

“I don’t know if I had it in me but I trusted in my training, my team, my coaches, and just went up there and got the job done.

“I am very, very happy… I really want to make a statement every time I go out and fight and I think that’s what I did tonight. It was fun.”

Nunes had claimed before the bout that she would take the title “back to Brazil” and the challenger, who entered the fight with a 5-0 record, gave as good as she got.

But after withstanding early pressure, Lee’s superior grappling started to make the difference and eventually led to her victory.

“I knew she was going to come out with heavy hands, I trained for it,” she said.

“I have so much respect for Istela Nunes, I think that her story is amazing… she really wanted it but this is my life, I live for this, I can’t give up that belt, no way.”

In the co-main event, American Ben Askren extended his record to 16-0 as he successfully defended his welterweight world title against Malaysian youngster Agilan Thani by way of a first-round arm triangle submission.

There was also joy for the other two Singaporeans on the fight card, as Tiffany Teo and Amir Khan emerged victorious in their strawweight and lightweight bouts respectively.