The 19-year-old Lee accepted two incredibly tough challenges in one when she accepted this fight. First, she would be travelling to Europe, the furthest she has ever been from home in her young life. Second, she would be facing the undefeated French fighter Amel Dehby, a tall order on its own.
Lee came in confident, talking about how hard she was to hit. Dehby apparently did not hear any of this, because she landed on her constantly throughout the fight and took little return fire for much of it.
Key to victory for Dehby was her range and evasiveness. She was able to score with long straight shots against Lee, who found herself struggling with a reach disadvantage. Lee's attempts to plough forward and land something often just led to her walking onto a Dehby punch or kick and then swinging at air as Dehby pivoted out.
It started to become clear why Dehby was undefeated. Her mastery of range and catlike reflexes kept her out of harm's way most of the time – indeed it was her, and not Lee, who turned out to be hard to hit.
Lee's rare successes came when she was able to draw Dehby into close range exchanges, during which she gave a spirited account of herself. But from midway into the fight it was clear that only a knockout would win her the fight and that never looked close to happening.
When the final bell sounded on the fight it was obvious that Dehby would be maintaining her undefeated record. And so she did - all five judges scored the bout 30-27 for Dehby, making it a clean sweep.
Dehby thanked the crowd for turning out to support her and then talked about moving forward to the next stage of the Women's Super-Bantamweight Grand Prix, which has as its ultimate prize the inaugural Super-Bantamweight world title.
“It's a pretty big deal to have that belt. I want to bring it back to France and I think France will be proud of me,” she said, receiving a loud cheer in response.
Amel Dehby (28-0-0) def. Jiwaen Lee (13-3-0), Unanimous Decision, R3 (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
