Revenge will certainly be in the mind of Denice Zamboanga as she faces fellow atomweight standout Seo Hee Ham at ONE X on March 26.
ONE Championship revealed the matchup via its Instagram, and fans were hyped about the announcement.
Their first meeting was in the opening round of the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix in September of last year, where Ham picked up a unanimous decision victory to face Stamp Fairtex in the semis.
However, an untimely injury forced the South Korean out of the tournament and was replaced by Julie Mezabarba.
Many were outraged with the judges’ decision as it seemed like Zamboanga was going to keep her then-unbeaten record after a strong showing against Ham.
The Singapore-based promotion’s competition committee, which is now defunct, put the fight under review but still ruled it in favor of Ham.
The 25-year-old Filipina put on the pressure against Ham very quickly as she grappled with her for the better part of the first round and being open to exchanging strikes in the second.
Ham was repeatedly caught with counterpunches from Zamboanga but was able to successfully stuff her attempts at enforcing a ground game.
An accidental head clash late in the third round left Zamboanga bloodied yet motivated as she lifted Ham for a powerful double-leg takedown that allowed her to land some much-needed offense from top position to close out the fight.
The judges still deemed the fight in favor of Ham, which led to Zamboanga decrying the result via social media.
With a rematch now set in stone, Zamboanga will look to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she deserved to get the victory over Ham back in September when they meet again at ONE X.
The event was originally scheduled for early December in celebration of the promotion’s decade-long existence, but the organization was forced to move it due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in Singapore.
ONE X will be headlined by reigning atomweight queen Angela Lee defending her title against Grand Prix winner Stamp in the main event, while Yuya Wakamatsu will challenge flyweight king Adriano Moraes in the co-headliner.
The long-awaited hybrid MMA-Muay Thai matchup between Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Demetrious Johnson is also set to happen at ONE X.
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