ONE Championship decides NOT to overturn the results of Website positioning Hee Ham vs. Denice Zamboanga

PhotoCred: CNN Philippines

Seo Hee Ham remains a winner in the ONE championship circle despite a post-fight review.

ONE: Empower took place last Friday and featured the highly anticipated eight-woman world-class atomic weight grand prix. Participants included graduate freshman, UFC veteran and former RIZIN super atomic weight champion, Seo Hee Ham (24-8).

The experienced 32-year-old fighter in Ham, Korea has had the longest hiatus of her career – her previous fight was when she won the RIZIN crown in her trilogy with Ayaka Hamasaki. The previously undefeated Denice Zamboanga of the Philippines welcomed Ham to ONE, but couldn’t get the job done when Ham took the always tight nod back home with a shared decision.

Due to the outcry of the fans together with Zamboanga and her team, ONE Championship felt compelled to review the decision. Fortunately for multiple MMA champion Ham, ONE’s competition committee confirmed the outcome of the fight.

“It’s just one of those things,” ONE founder Chatri Sityodtong told the South China Morning Post. “When I look at it objectively, I still think Denice won, but I respect and can see how the judges rated it for Ham. It went to the committee and I was obviously wrong about the committee. “

Ham now stays in the semi-finals with greats like Itsuki Hirata, Stamp Fairtex and Ritu Phogat. In the meantime, Zamboanga is expected to next take on the tournament’s substitute Julie Mezabarba for Mezabarba’s substitute, as some sort of consolation.

“If there are controversial fights, we will usually review them internally anyway,” said Sityodtong. “The committee will then decide if there is a really loud rationale. This decision was controversial, but in many ways not controversial.

“It was a very close fight that could have ended either way. We always try to guarantee fair play. It’s just one of those things, from time to time we’ll repeat a fight. This one was less controversial to me, but Denice and her team pounded on the table for a review.

“We’d rather not be involved, but we understand the rules of fair play and sportsmanship,” he continued. “We were very lucky – in over 1,000 or 1,200 games we only had a handful of games where a serious mistake or a real foul or something might have happened that would have led us to review it and possibly rate it as not a competition . “

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM