Ham Seo-hee says Denice Zamboanga should ‘go and study ONE Championship rules’ after call for review
- ‘If she knows the rules from start to end, I believe she would agree I won the fight,’ Ham says after edging Filipino by split decision
- ‘I really don’t understand why this is causing some controversy. Just look at our faces. Faces speak the result,’ South Korean veteran adds
Ham Seo-hee was not having any of it after Denice Zamboanga suggested the judges got things wrong in their tight ONE Championship atomweight grand prix quarter-final.
“In my opinion I think she should go and study the rules first, because if she knows the rules from the start to the end, I believe she would agree I won the fight, so I don’t know what to say,” Ham told media on a post-fight virtual interview.
Asian promotion ONE uses the Global MMA Ruleset, which scores the whole fight rather than round by round, and where effort to produce a finish and damage inflicted are more important for judges to consider than under the more widely-adopted Unified Rules.
“I really don’t understand why this is causing some controversy,” Ham added. “Just look at our faces. Faces speak the result. I think if the fans would study more about ONE rules they might feel the same way.”
The fight was paused for several minutes in the third round after an accidental clash of heads, with Zamboanga requiring medical treatment for a nasty cut on her forehead, that saw Ham’s yellow shirt stained almost completely red with blood by the final bell.
“If Denice really thought she was winning and she had that interval, she wouldn’t have desperately tried that takedown, running towards me,” Ham said. “It just showed deep inside she knew she was losing and needed to do something to win this fight. That action itself shows the decision was right.”
“In any point of the fight I never thought I was losing, because if you know ONE Championship’s ruleset it’s a bit different,” she added.
“Takedowns or the clinch, she wasn’t advancing her position. She wasn’t really effective. Damage-wise, I believe I was clearly winning. I believe the people will look at the rules and try to watch the fight again.”
