In 2018 Denice Zamboanga was an undefeated strawweight contender with the URCC. She was rolling through the admittedly very low level competition in the Philippines and on the verge of bigger and better things.
This week Zamboanga dug up and old photo taken before URCC Colossal. She stopped Eun Bi Cho in the second round that night to take her record to 5-0 and ultimately earn a ONE Championship contract.
But Zamboanga’s trip down memory lane had a clear purpose. She wanted to point out the physical transformation that her body has undergone in the past four years:
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Same weight
Zamboanga says she was the same weight then as she is now. The Filipina competes in ONE Championship’s atomweight division, which requires fighters to weigh 115lbs and pass hydration tests.
Back then she was at strawweight which is also 115lbs but the URCC, like most MMA promotions, has no restrictions on weight cutting and rehydration so most fighters in the division are much larger.
According to Zamboanga she is exactly the same weight now as she was back then. But the difference in her body, as she is so keen to point out, is extremely notable.
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Intense training
The transformation has clearly not happened overnight. Years of intense training and pumping iron have gone into making Zamboanga leaner, fitter and stronger.
Most of that time she has been in Thailand. Zamboanga as at Fairtex for several years but left when ONE Championship put her and her training partner Stamp Fairtex into the atomweight Grand Prix.
Zamboanga would go on to be controversially eliminated in the opening round by Seo Hee Ham. But after leaving Fairtex she didn’t move too far, the 26 year old made the short trip to Bangkok to join Marrok Force MMA.
That camp appears to have closed its doors now and Zamboanga is back in the Philippines. But while she has been forced to move between various training facilities the Filipina always looks in fantastic shape.
That clearly wasn’t the case in 2018. But Zamboanga is proud of the way her body looks now and all that effort she has put into training is clearly paying off.
