DELAYED GRATIFICATION
Denice Zamboanga has been competing in ONE Championship’s atomweight circuit for over half a decade, rising through the ranks and even emerging as the weight class’ top contender. And yet, a shot at the belt has proven elusive through the years for reasons beyond her control.
On Saturday, handed a chance to remedy all that, Zamboanga knocked out Alyona Rassohyna of Ukraine in the second round to capture the interim title and make sure that her date destiny was merely delayed, and not denied.
“I’ve been aiming for this for years. I was never here on short notice or something. I’ve made this [possible] with hard work,” she said shortly after the triumph fashioned at the historic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
“The delays, the injuries. I’ve been through a lot,” she added, tears welling from the corner of her eyes. “Last two weeks, I couldn’t move my left arm, but I didn’t ask to cancel the fight. I knew God will give me this belt.”
Zamboanga made her promotion debut in December 2019, besting Jihin Radzuan with a unanimous decision victory. She annexed two more convincing wins to scale in the weight class contender leaderboard.
She hit a proverbial wall when then-division champion Angela Lee took a break to focus on motherhood. She was later rerouted to face Ham Seo-hee, but found herself on the nasty end of a controversial split decision loss that rolled back whatever strides she had made thus far.
After a couple of hard-earned wins to get back on track and reclaim her status as top contender, Zamboanga saw her chance against the new champion and close pal Stamp Fairtex again derailed due to the latter’s injury.
But instead of giving up on the chase, the Filipino submission specialist kept her nose on the grindstone until the next chance came along.
And that indeed was the case against the Ukrainian grappler who also has top-shelf proficiency on the ground.
‘Ready to fight my friend’
Zamboanga went for side control in the second round, making it hell for Rassohyna with elbows and hammer fists en route to a stoppage at 4:47 and a historic win that also crowned her the first Filipina to win a mixed martial arts strap along with a token $50,000 from the promotion (about P3 million) for the feat.
“There’s a lot of atomweights out there but you love me so much. So thank you for the opportunities,” said Zamboanga, who will now again have a chance to battle Stamp in a unification bout later this year.
“I really deserve to fight Stamp. And I proved it today. I finished my opponent,” she added before being joined by her former sparring mate inside the ring.
The pair, each one holding their respective belts, had their photo taken together, but not without the Thai star cranking up anticipation for their duel.
“I’m excited to meet her in the ring. I’m ready to fight my friend,” Stamp said.
Later in the day, ONE also announced that fierce rivals, former champions and good friends Eduard Folayang and Shinya Aoki, are scheduled to lock horns for a fourth time in a bout set in Saitama, Japan, this coming March.
