ONE X: Ham Seo-hee clinches atomweight title shot with win over Denice Zamboanga; Tang Kai targets Thanh Le’s belt at featherweight
- South Korean atomweight seemingly earns a crack at the belt with a decision defeat of Zamboanga in Singapore
- Chinese featherweight Tang also positions himself nicely with a KO win over No 1 contender Kim Jae-woong
South Korea’s Ham Seo-hee seemingly earned an atomweight title shot at Saturday’s ONE X event in Singapore, defeating Filipino contender Denice Zamboanga by unanimous decision.
The bout was a rematch of a September 2021 fight that Ham won via controversial decision. The sequel nearly ended with another round of controversy, as Ham was forced to take an injury timeout after an inadvertent clash of heads early in the first round, but the South Korean star was able to recover.
Once she had cleared the cobwebs, she got to work with her wrestling, completing multiple takedowns and spending a significant portion of the fight suffocating Zamboanga from top position – which was enough to sway the judges in her favour.
“On our first bout my game plan was to let her wrestle,” she said in her post-fight interview with commentator Mitch Chilson. “After that people thought I couldn’t wrestle. For this bout, my game plan was to strike, but deep inside I wanted to show people that I’m a well-rounded athlete and that I can also wrestle and grapple.”
With her second win over Zamboanga, Ham (25-8) asserted herself as the next woman in line for the winner of an atomweight title fight between champion Angela Lee and challenger Stamp Fairtex, who will meet in the ONE X main event.
“I believe my next fight will be the winner of Angela Lee and Stamp Fairtex later on,” she said.
In defeat, Zamboanga (8-2) is now a two-fight skid after kicking off her career with eight straight wins.