Luisa Morales – Philstar.com
September 1, 2021 | 9:49 a.m.
MANILA, Philippines – Filipino fighter Denice Zamboanga ignores a prediction by ONE women’s atomic weight world champion Angela Lee about her upcoming fight against Korean Seo Hee Ham in “ONE: Empower” on Friday.
Lee, who has long been jabbing with Zamboanga on social media, said the top atomic weight contender would only drop in the first round of the historic atomic weight women Grand Prix, while Ham would advance to the later rounds.
The 25-year-old Zamboanga is determined to prove the opposite of the Singaporean fighter and will come out with a chip on her shoulder on Friday.
“I think the champion (Angela) needs to relax and keep calm and she will see, I’ll prove her wrong,” Zamboanga said during a press conference Tuesday.
“It doesn’t matter because she’s not on the map so I think she needs to relax and unwind and see what’s going to happen,” she added on Lee’s contribution to the fight.
Zamboanga had been drafted to battle Lee for the belt before he was decommissioned due to pregnancy.
Now the Filipino fighter has to go through a selection of the top atomic weights of the doctorate, including veteran Ham in her first fight in the Grand Prix.
She welcomes the challenge, however, and says the added resistance would better prepare her for Lee.
“I think I have a fight [and to] Exercising would also be great for myself and other nuclear fighters to really prove who is the best to fight for the title, “said Zamboanga.
No trash talk for Ham
While Zamboanga has drawn attention not only against Lee but also against other opponents like Meng Bo with her verbal taunts, her upcoming opponent doesn’t seem to poke the bear with any trash talks.
After Ham has not said anything negative about her opponent so far, except perhaps a promise of a knockout, Ham has been relatively reluctant to go into the fight on Friday.
She says this because she does not see a goal achieved by speaking with her mouth.
Instead, she lets her skills speak for themselves.
“I don’t see any point in talking trash because I literally care about all of my opponents and all the athletes out there and I really respect them so it doesn’t make sense to me to talk trash,” said Ham.
Ham doesn’t want to go so far as to question Lee’s prediction of her victory, however.
“She saw it right,” said Ham.
The fight between Zamboanga and Ham is part of the historic all-women fight map of “ONE: Empower”, where all eight matchups of the World Grand Prix in atomic weight begin.
In the main event, Xiong Jing Nan from China will use her ONE strawweight world championship against the Brazilian Michelle Nicolini.
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