Photo from Lea Bivins Instagram
Lea Bivins says she’s drawing inspiration from training partners Angela Lee and Victoria Lee
Ahead of her promotional debut at ONE 159 on July 22, Lea Bivins is drawing inspiration from her well-known teammates.
As she prepares for her professional and promotional debut with ONE Championship, Lea Bivins is pulling inspiration from some highly-regarded fighters, who just so happen to also be her teammates. The 19-year old atomweight prospect is set to make her professional and promotional debut against Zeba Bano at ONE 159 on July 22nd, in the opening fight of the night. While her experience may not be there, she recently spoke about how she’s pulling inspiration from siblings Angela and Christian Lee, and even more so from their younger sister, Victoria Lee.
The four of them got training time in at United MMA in Hawaii, and while Angela, (current atomweight champion) and Christian (former lightweight champion) have championship resumes with ONE Championship, Victoria Lee is following a similar career path as Lea Bivins, as both are atomweight prospects. In an interview with Tom Taylor of South China Morning Post, Bivins opened up about how she’s pulling inspiration from the Lee siblings, and how they’ve helped lay a foundation ahead of her professional debut.
When she was just starting out and learning the sport, Lea Bivins said that her father would put on fights of Angela and Christian Lee, and that they were inspirations for her as she began her career.
“My dad would always show me Christian and Angela’s fights growing up. They were definitely an inspiration to my own martial arts journey.” (SCMP)
Not only does Lea Bivins feel attached to the Lee sibling connection through training inspiration, she also credits them all for making the training tough which has led to newly-grown confidence and knowledge.
“They’re beasts out there. They definitely have a whole different training camp. They definitely push the pace. It’s a really hard room to be in. There’s great competitors. You’re with Christian Lee, Angela Lee, Victoria Lee, even, Adrian Lee. They’re all an amazing martial arts family. It was amazing to get that experience and that confidence.”
The training lessons and confidence she’s receiving from the Lee siblings should serve Lea Bivins well as she prepares to fight another young fighter in Zeba Bano who is 1-1 in her professional career. Despite not having any professional experience heading into the fight against Bano, Bivins told South China Morning Post that she respects the matchmaking of the fight and her opponent’s skillset.
“I think she’s a tough opponent. She looks extremely strong. Her striking looks really good, and her ground game. I think, definitely, the matchmakers at ONE knew what they were doing with this fight.”
“A dream fight probably would be Stamp. I have a lot of respect for her and I think her Muay Thai is great. Just to be able to be up there with them would be amazing.”
It’ll have to be a one fight at a time approach for Lea Bivins, but with the confidence, skillset, and training partners behind her, the future seems bright for the 19-year old atomweight prospect.
