The late Victoria Lee (left) with sister Angela trained in the family-owned United MMA Hawaii Gym in Waipahu. Photo from UNITED MMA HAWAII/FACEBOOK, VICTORIALEE.MMA/INSTAGRAM
SINGAPORE – Following the death of Victoria Lee, her family have closed their United MMA Hawaii Gym in Waipahu.
The gym was set up in 2013 by the parents, Singaporean Ken and his South Korean-Canadian wife Jewelz, to groom mixed martial arts (MMA) athletes and offered classes for adults and children in MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
All their children – Angela, Christian, Victoria and Adrian – also trained there. Apart from Adrian, the others went on to fight in Singapore-based MMA outfit One Championship.
Combat sports podcast host Todd Atkin said in a tweet on Monday that United MMA Hawaii had sent out notices to its members stating “all memberships will be canceled and students will no longer be billed moving forward”.
While the gym did not respond to a query from The Straits Times, its official Instagram page has changed its description to “permanently closed”.
United BJJ Hawaii, which is owned by Angela Lee and her husband Bruno Pucci, appears to be open and the gym’s social media accounts were still active as of last Thursday.
The 18-year-old Victoria Lee’s death on December 26 in Hawaii was announced by her older sister Angela in an Instagram post last Saturday.
The cause was not stated.
In the wake of Victoria Lee’s death, ONE Championship has canceled her scheduled atomweight fight with India’s Zeba Bano at the One Fight Night 6 on Saturday.
Instead, the main event in Bangkok will now be Thai Singha Mawynn squaring off with Belarusian Chingiz Allazov in the featherweight kickboxing world championship.
Other fights include Thai Superlek Kiatmoo9 taking on Spain’s Daniel Puertas for the vacant ONE flyweight kickboxing world title and the atomweight mixed rules clash between Thai star Stamp Fairtex and French-Algerian Anissa Meksen.
MMA promotion One said a tribute video of Victoria Lee will be shared on their social media pages in the coming days and will be part of their Jan 14 broadcast.
She had not fought since Sept 24, 2021, when she defeated Brazilian Victoria Souza by technical knockout in Singapore.
Angela Lee, 26, is the ONE Championship atomweight world champion while Christian Lee, 24 holds the lightweight and welterweight title belts. Both of them were born in Vancouver and Victoria Lee was born in Waipahu.
Although they reside in Hawaii, the Lees, who are coached by their parents, fight under the Singapore flag.
Their youngest brother, Adrian, 17, is set to follow in their footsteps as he won his first amateur MMA title fight in Hawaii in December.