But less than 24 hours later, Chatri announced the fight was under formal review by ONE’s competition committee, and now a tournament that has been beset by several delays could face yet another.

There was an immediate knock-on effect. “Want to review mine and Danny’s while you’re at it?” Reece McLaren wrote in the comments on ONE’s Instagram post announcing the review. Indeed, seemingly picking and choosing which controversial results to review – and which not to – opens ONE up to accusations of bias.

ONE Championship puts on first all-kickboxing main card

The Post was in Manila for McLaren’s flyweight grand prix semi-final defeat by Team Lakay’s Danny Kingad in August 2019, when “The King” took a split decision to a gigantic roar of approval from his home crowd. The Australian was entitled to be just as aggrieved as Zamboanga, if not more so, after seemingly controlling the fight.

The Philippines is a big market for ONE, though, with the Mall of Asia Arena regularly packed to the rafters for events before the global pandemic struck, making it justifiable to ask whether the outcry from Zamboanga’s fans has prompted this review.

And so some observers have cried foul play, while others have suggested this is justice for Zamboanga. Whichever side you fall on, what is undeniable is that reviewing a close fight where there were no fouls or obvious mistakes from officials only undermines the judges.

There has been plenty of previous when it comes to reviews in ONE, but there was seemingly more cause for all of them.

Chatri ordered an immediate rematch of Petchmorrakot’s shock featherweight kick-boxing grand prix quarter-final win against Giorgio Petrosyan in May 2019, a statement saying the referee did not adequately control the “illegal clinching” of Muay Thai star Petchmorrakot, “resulting in multiple infractions”.

New Zealand’s Ev Ting also had a request for a review granted after his lightweight MMA loss to Amir Khan in November 2019. “I do not think that a fighter who runs away with minimal output deserves to win,” Chatri wrote in a Facebook post. “Amir was fighting not to lose, while Ev was fighting to win.” No result of the review was announced, however, and Khan’s record still shows a victory.

In the grand scheme of things, those cases didn’t matter too much. But if ONE overturns Zamboanga’s loss, either to a no contest or a win for the Filipino, it will open up a can of worms and plunge the grand prix into more scheduling chaos.

What now, though, if ONE orders a rematch between Zamboanga and Ham? The earliest the fight could happen again is the end of October. Zamboanga has flown back to Thailand, where she trains, and is in a two-week quarantine, so there is no chance she could make it back to Singapore for September 24’s Revolution card. Not to mention that she opened up a huge cut on her forehead in the third round against Ham, which could have seen the fight called off.

That injury will need time to heal, and so will Ham’s pride if her promotional debut victory is taken away from her.

The 32-year-old former UFC star was signed to much fanfare, vacating her atomweight title in Japanese promotion Rizin, and came into the grand prix as the heavy favourite. She would not take kindly to having to fight Zamboanga again, or worse, being bounced from the tournament – not to mention being denied any win bonus after two of the three judges saw it for her.

ONE has a crucial decision on its hands, and whether it’s fair or not, the easiest thing is to proceed as planned, with Ham in and Zamboanga out.

Fan voting has already begun on ONE’s website for the semi-final matchups, and is set to conclude on September 10 with the results to be announced during the Revolution event.

The show must go on, as they say, but that is no bad thing for Zamboanga – she is still young, improving with every fight, and proved her class against Ham.

After their social media spat, the No 1-ranked “Lycan Queen” has a match-up with Lee out there whenever ONE wants to put it together, and if Ham goes on to win the tournament and then the belt, the rematch is there too.

For now, Zamboanga can fight some of the other quarter-final losers, or even newcomer Julie Mezabarba, who looked impressive during a unanimous decision over former challenger Mei Yamaguchi in Friday’s “alternate” bout.

She just needs to keep her name in the conversation, and then she is likely to get the next crack for the belt after Lee fights the winner of the grand prix.

That is the simplest solution for ONE, and the fairest to all parties. But when has MMA ever been fair? So buckle up, because things could be about to get very bumpy.