ONE Championship: Ham Seo-hee says Denice Zamboanga doesn’t have ‘anything dangerous’, sees ‘comfortable night’
- UFC and Rizin veteran downplays undefeated Filipino’s supposed size advantage
- ‘I don’t think I’m going to have a hard time,’ says Ham ahead of atomweight grand prix clash
Ham Seo-hee does not believe Denice Zamboanga is as dangerous as everyone insists.
ONE Championship’s all-female Empower card is set to take place on September 3 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and Ham (23-8) will face No 1 contender Zamboanga (8-0) in the quarter-finals of the atomweight grand prix, a clash being heralded as the most anticipated match-up of the tournament.
Even though the undefeated Filipino 24-year-old has impressed in the Asian promotion, South Korean UFC and Rizin veteran Ham is confident with what she has seen on tape.
“I did study her and we came to the conclusion that she didn’t have anything that’s dangerous,” Ham told the Post. “And I thought it would be a comfortable fight for me.
“She doesn’t have anything special in one aspect of MMA. She’s a good fighter for sure but I don’t think she’s that dangerous. And I don’t think I’m going to have a hard time.”
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“At first, I couldn’t take it,” Ham said. “I couldn’t take the fact that my puppy … that’s like my son passed away so I couldn’t really take it. I didn’t take it well. But as time passed, now my mindset is like he’s still with me. Not with me physically. We’re not touching each other or anything like that but I believe my puppy is still together with me spiritually every day. Now, I’m taking it much better.”
“To be honest, even when I heard I was going to fight in September, I couldn’t really train,” she added. “I wasn’t at the gym because my puppy passed away. And I couldn’t really take it well. It was a really difficult time for me.
“So I couldn’t get back in there and train. I wasn’t mentally ready. But one thing I can assure you is that once I recovered from that loss of my puppy, I worked my ass off. I was there, I was putting in 100 per cent.”
Size as well as strength will be major talking points heading into Ham’s promotional debut, when she will return from a 20-month lay-off.
The Team MAD staple had a stint at strawweight with the UFC between 2014 and 2016, but struggled against much bigger competition, and some have suggested she could have similar problems in ONE, whose atomweight division limit is also 115 pounds.
“As soon as the bout versus Denice was confirmed, I’ve been hearing from everywhere I might have a disadvantage in strength,” Ham said. “Because my opponent, she’s very strong.
“But as long as our weight is similar, I don’t think she will be that much stronger than me. So I don’t really care about those kinds of comments and I just trained hard.”
