The past year hasn’t been particularly kind to Angela Lee. Outside the cage she’s continued recovery from a horrific car accident, and inside competition she went from being undefeated to sitting on a two-fight losing skid.

Fortunately for Lee (9-2), she has the chance to make up for it and close 2019 on a high note. The ONE Championship atomweight titleholder said she’s back to her physical best, and she will have the chance to avenge her fist pro loss when she headlines “ONE Championship 100: Century – Part 1” in October with a rematch against Jing Nan Xiong (14-1).

Lee moved up to flyweight to challenge Xiong for the belt in March, but she succumbed to a fifth-round TKO for her first career setback. Lee lost another flyweight bout to Michelle Nicolini in July, but now she’s back at the weight where she holds gold, and Xiong is coming down for the rematch.

“I think this is the right fight at the right time,” Lee told MMA Junkie. “I need to defend my title against someone like Xiong, who is coming down to the atomweight division. It’s going to be an extreme for her. It’s tough for me to make this weight, so it’s tough for anyone to make this cut to 115. It’s not the easiest, but I think it’s going to be a great fight, and I’m going to have the advantage fighting at this weight.”

Lee is in the midst of the most difficult chapter of her career. Despite that, she has kept a positive attitude. After making her ONE Championship debut at 19 in 2015, “Unstoppable” has been forced to grow as an MMA fighter under the spotlight.

She lived up to expectations for years, winning her first nine fights and becoming the youngest person to claim a ONE Championship belt at just 21. As the challenges got bigger, though, the winning results have been harder to come by. That’s not easy to deal with, but Lee said she’s appreciative of the struggle.

“For sure the losses bothered me. It’s bothered me bad,” Lee said. “As much as I hate losing I can truly say I’m grateful it happened. I’m grateful for my losses, because I know it’s going to make me a much better fighter, and I’m grateful for it. It’s a hard thing to be undefeated, and I’m proud of myself for being undefeated as long as I was, and now that we got these losses out of the way, it’s time to get back on track. I’m really motivated to keep my belt.”

Lee said her work ethic has never come into question. However, being in an unfamiliar space in her career has festered a different level of incentive to win. By moving up a division, Lee had everything to gain in recent fights. This time it’s her belt on the line, though, and Lee said it’s important to keep it in her possession.

“After these two fights I came back and told my coaches, ‘Whatever I need to do,’” Lee said. “Anything I’ve needed to do I’ve been willing to do it. I just want to make the adjustments I need to make, and I want to make sure that I’m more than ready for anything. I don’t feel like I’ve ever been in this position before to be this motivated to win a fight. There’s a lot on the line.”

The first meeting with Xiong was by no means a blowout, but a hard body kick with some follow-up strikes earned Xiong the TKO in the fifth round of a high-action affair.

The coaching staff behind Lee and the fighter herself are working diligently to “fix the errors” from the first bout. If she does that, Lee said she expects to avenge the loss and return to the win column.

“I’m confident in the rematch,” Lee said. “I have this goal, and in the back of my head I’m going to do what I need to do to keep this belt. To have this one focus and to know so much is on the line, it’s like this added motivation. There’s always motivation, but this is a new situation.

“I didn’t have the best of luck the past two fights, and now I’m back in my division where I’m the champion, and I have that confidence going in there. I don’t want to lose.”