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| Denice Zamboanga is now a world MMA champion. ONE Championship (file photo) |
MANILA--After years of heartbreaks and match postponements, Denice Zamboanga can now call herself a world champion, albeit on an interim basis.
Zamboanga captured the interim ONE Championship women's atomweight MMA title after dominating Alyona Rassohyna at ONE Fight Night 27 on Saturday at the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok.
Zamboanga frustrated Rassohyna even if the latter, a grappling expert, had her opportunities when the game went to the ground.
Zamboanga began her brilliant play with a solid Round 1, even initiating the ground game with the first takedown of the fight and her crisp striking.
Rassohyna tried to turn things around in Round 2 with several takedown attempts, but Zamboanga's better positioning added more frustrations to the Ukranian stalwart.
With Rassohyna now in a precarious position, Zamboanga found an opening for her ground-and-pound action that eventually prompted referee Herb Dean to call the fight off at the 4:47 mark of the second round.
Zamboanga moved up to 12-2 in her already illustrious MMA career, scoring her sixth finish, as she is now in line to fight Nadthawan "Stamp Fairtex" Panthong sometime in the future for the undisputed ONE women's atomweight title.
Both fighters were supposed to face off last June at ONE 167, but Stamp dropped out after suffering a meniscus injury the month before.
On the other hand, Rassohyna dropped to 13-6.
Follow him on X: @IvanSaldajeno
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