Denice Zamboanga Plans to Increase Grappling Lead in Stamp Fairtex World Title Challenge
Denice “The Menace” Zamboanga is well aware of the enormous challenge that lies ahead.
On June 7th in US primetime, the Filipino standout will face her former training partner Stamp Fairtex for the ONE Women’s Atomic Weight MMA World Title in the main event of ONE 167 on Prime Video at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand .
The fight represents a monumental opportunity for Zamboanga to become the Philippines’ first female MMA world champion and defeat one of the combat sport’s biggest stars.
Now in her final preparations for the highly anticipated world title clash, the No. 2 ranked contender spoke to onefc.com about how she plans to get the job done against Stamp.
The pair worked together at the Fairtex Training Center in Pattaya, Thailand, and Zamboanga says the experience showed her exactly where she would have an advantage:
“I believe I can use my ground game as an advantage because I don’t think she can stop it. Since we started training together [at Fairtex]I’ve always had more knowledge in grappling and I feel like I can use that against her in this fight.”
In fact, the submission-savvy Zamboanga is a ground specialist, combining suffocating superior control with wild groundstrokes and a potent submission game.
Stamp, on the other hand, is the most dangerous striker in the division. And although the former kickboxing and Muay Thai queen has shown marked improvements in her ground game, her grappling remains her weakest link.
To this end, the challenger says she is developing a game plan to deal with the poisonous skills of Thai striking:
“Of course her advantage will be her striking. No surprise there. She has beautiful striking and we all know it. However, I am prepared for it. I just can’t trust my ground game in this match.
“To take the match to the ground, I have to strike her first, and that’s why I’m sharpening my striking for this fight, because I really have to take her to the ground.”
Even though she sees a clear path to victory on the ground, “The Menace” isn’t ready to make a prediction on how the contest will play out.
Instead, she’ll simply be ready for whatever happens on fight day:
“I don’t want to give any predictions, other than that I will do everything to take the belt to the Philippines. I respect the Seal. She’s such a good fighter, and I wouldn’t want to get ahead of myself. I expect the fight to start slowly as we assess each other, and then the action will pick up from there.”
Zamboanga says Stamp will be a surprise
When Denice Zamboanga enters the Circle against Stamp Fairtex, she will be facing a former training partner and good friend.
But as much as Zamboanga respects her opponent, she says their friendly relationship will go down the drain as soon as the opening bell rings:
“We are very good friends, but at the end of the day, that’s where professionalism comes in. The moment we enter ONE Circle, this friendship will have to be put aside, as we both have the same goals.
“We are facing each other’s dreams and that is what I will be thinking about when we face each other.”
Despite their history as training partners, “The Menace” also believes that a lot is different right now.
She’s confident that when the Circle’s door closes on June 7, she’ll shock Stamp with a new and improved version of herself:
“Of course, we trained together and in some ways we are familiar with each other’s games, strengths and weaknesses and everything, but I think a lot has changed since then.
“It’s been years since we last trained together, so even though there’s still familiarity, I think I’ll surprise her with how much I’ve improved, and I hope Stamp has improved a lot as well.”
