Denice Zamboanga handed out a season’s beating to Heqin Lin at ONE on Prime Video 5 on Saturday. The Filipina seems to be getting in the festive spirit as she shared a video of herself trading right hands with the Chinese fighter.
Zamboanga shared the video of her eating a right hand from Heqin before firing back with a harder right hand of her own along with a caption that said simply ‘holidays are a time to give back’:
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New fiancee
Zamboanga will probably be spending Christmas with her new fiancee. She got engaged to Fritz Biagtan earlier this year, a mixed martial artist who has fought for the URCC and Rizin.
She also moved back to the Philippines after the demise of Marrok Force MMA. Zamboanga has been based in Thailand since the start of her ONE Championship career, training in Pattaya and Bangkok.
She finished the year in the best possible way, getting a first win since 2020. Having been renowned for her ground game she showcased some boxing skills in the win over Heqin although the 25 year old didn’t have things all her own way.
Denice Zamboanga and Lin Heqin are kicking off ONE on Prime Video 5 with a BANG! 💥
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE on Prime Video 5!
🇺🇸🇨🇦 👉 https://t.co/D7gGSMLPtU
🌍 👉 https://t.co/eBUfsODAFL pic.twitter.com/EMlyuXByuK— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) December 3, 2022
Split decision
Zamboanga only prevailed by way of split decision but it is about time she had some luck with the ONE Championship judges. She suffered a controversial loss at the hands of Seo Hee Ham in 2021.
That was the first defeat of Zamboanga’s entire career and cost her a spot in the semi finals of the atomweight Grand Prix. She was convincingly beaten by the Korean in the rematch but appears to be back on track after last Saturday’s win.
After the fight she called out Stamp Fairtex. The two atomweights used to train together at Fairtex and were good friends although the relationship clearly isn’t strong enough for them to be unwilling to fight one another.
Stamp laughed off the callout suggesting that Zamboanga should be looking to face Seo Hee Ham for a third time. But both atomweight have identical 9-2 records after the weekend so their situations are virtually identical.
Zamboanga was promised a shot at Angela Lee but missed out when the champion got pregnant. Stamp already fought Lee once but came up shirt, getting submitted in the second round by the champion.
