“I really love this company” - Denice Zamboanga lauds ONE Championship for giving women’s MMA the spotlight it deserves
Interim ONE atomweight MMA world champion Denice Zamboanga owes everything to the world's largest martial arts organization. After all, it was ONE Championship who gave her the global platform and opportunity to bring pride and honor to her country.
'The Menace' became the Philippines' first-ever female mixed martial arts world champion when she defeated Alyona Rassohya at ONE Fight Night 27 last January.
It was truly a monumental and life-changing moment for Zamboanga.
Appearing in an interview on Atleta Filipina's YouTube channel, the 28-year-old praised ONE for breaking barriers and giving female fighters like herself a chance to shine:
"For ONE Championship, I really love this company. They really take care of their fighters like me. They know the struggles of female fighters, so they really help them make a living."
Denice Zamboanga also cited that when her original opponent, Stamp Fairtex, bowed out due to injury, ONE still found her a great match for 26 pounds of gold.
She added:
"Even if my opponent was injured, they gave me a chance to fight for an interim belt."
The long-awaited clash between Zamboanga and atomweight MMA world champion Stamp is back on at ONE 173: Denver. This massive five-round atomweight MMA world title unification battle will take place inside the Ball Arena on Aug. 1.
Visit watch.onefc.com for more details about this massive spectacle.
Denice Zamboanga reminisces on how she started in MMA
Every heroine has her own origin story. For Denice Zamboanga, it was her seemingly harmless and fun training with her brother and fellow MMA fighter Drex Zamboanga that kick-started her adventure.
'The Menace' shared her fondest memory of training in her family garage:
"My brother just said, ‘Denice, do you want to try fighting in MMA?’ It was just like that, and then eventually, we were training together in our garage. It was just the two of us, and it was only about five square meters of space for training. He was just teaching me the basics of the ground game, submissions, and takedowns."
Watch the interview in its entirety: