Denice “The Menace” Zamboanga has been the number one contender to ONE Atomweight World Champion “Unstoppable” Angela Lee since February, but the recent pandemic has temporarily halted their bout.
Zamboanga admits, however, that she wants to stay busy until that clash with Lee becomes available.
“I know everything’s not yet normal, and I know it will take a long time to face my idol. But if ONE championship gives us an opportunity again to stay active in fighting, I’m going to fight again,” Zamboanga told Michael Schiavello in an interview at ONEFC.com.
Staying true to her word, Zamboanga put her top contender status at stake when she took on Watsapinya “Dream Girl” Kaewkhong at ONE: A New Breed on August 28. She took care of business quite handily with a first-round win.
And while there were talks a few months ago of her friend Stamp Fairtex jumping the line and challenging Lee first, Zamboanga hopes that her performance against Kaewkhong has verified her spot.
“I wasn’t upset — I know that Stamp and Angela are champions. I understand that a lot of people want to see Stamp and Angela. They’re both champions, they’re famous, and I have only fought twice. But after competing in my last fight, maybe I have proven that I have what it takes as well.”
Aside from Lee, a match-up with Stamp could be interesting for the Filipina because they remain unbeaten in the mixed martial arts atomweight division.
Zamboanga hopes to avoid that, though, given that she became friends with Stamp while training at Fairtex. Still, if it happens, she’ll be treating it as business and nothing personal.
“I love Stamp. We’re very close. We trained together before. It’s going to be hard for both of us to fight against each other. I don’t want to have some sort of rivalry between us and I really want to keep that friendship,” Zamboanga said.
“Maybe in the future, if we talk about business, but right now I am focused on my World Title shot.”
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