One shot can be all it takes. Seo Hee Ham is certainly hoping this will be the case when she faces Denice Zamboanga in the opening round of the atomweight Grand Prix.
Ham takes on Zamboanga at ONE: ‘Empower’ on Friday in Singapore. The UFC veteran is not expecting it to be a long evening,
“After the bell goes off for the first round, I will take my stance a distance from her, then assess my opponent and study her movement. Then I will move in for a one-shot knockout. This is what I’ve thought about constantly and imagined as I prepared for the tournament.”
Never pounded
With ONE Championship looking to finish the tournament before the end of the year a first round finish could be handy for the Korean. It would leave her fresh and ready to face either Alyona Rassohnya or Stamp Fairtex in the semi final.
She is sure Zamboanga will try to take her down but warns the #1 ranked contender that she has yet to take a pounding in her career,
“In preparation for this match, I have anticipated her takedown tactics and prepared a lot for them, so I don’t think I will be an easy target to take down. I have never been taken down and received a pounding to end the match before, so I doubt that it will happen this time.”
Greatest strength
Ham has been submitted twice but the last time that happened was in 2008. So if her ground game is a weakness it doesn’t show. and hasn’t prevented her from winning the Road FC 105lbs title and Rizin 108lbs title in recent years.
But Ham is convinced Zamboanga will try to take her down,
“She seems to like cage wrestling, so I trained largely on defending against that, as well as boxing. I think she’s very strong, for sure. She likes to give her opponent a hard time while wrestling and likes to go to the ground to press them down.”
While Ham knows what sort of fight she is expecting the Korean is willing do do whatever it takes to book a spot in the semi final. She says this determination and tenacity is her single greatest strength,
“Regardless of who my opponent is in any match, I never give up. My style of doing whatever I need to do I think, is considered my strength.”
