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ONE Fight Night 5: Denice Zamboanga clarifies call-out of friend Stamp Fairtex; Stamp responds

Following the pivotal atomweight mixed martial arts victory, "The Menace" had an interesting callout up her sleeve - Stamp Fairtex.

Denice Zamboanga

Singapore, December 9: Denice Zamboanga has clarified about her post-fight call-out at ONE Fight Night 5: De Ridder vs. Malykhin, where she returned to the winner's column on home soil this past weekend.

The Filipina star overcame some early adversity to earn a hard-fought split decision win over Chinese power puncher Lin Heqin in the opening bout of the December 3rd card, which took place at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines.

Following the pivotal atomweight mixed martial arts victory, "The Menace" had an interesting callout up her sleeve - Stamp Fairtex.

The pair have long been friends and are former training partners, so Zamboanga's choice to say Stamp's name certainly raised eyebrows.

"It's because I already fought most of the top five. She's now ranked number one. I want to get back to my number one spot," she explained.

Stamp currently occupies the top-ranked spot in the women's atomweight division, while Zamboanga sits at #3. The 25-year-old star noted that the call-out was not a personal attack on the Thai superstar, and it came down to purely sporting reasons.

"Yes, it's very difficult to call out a friend, of course. With Stamp, I love her, but this is business. It's all about business, it's nothing personal," she said. "Of course [we'll go back to being friends after the fight]. We love each other. She knows it."

Word quickly got back to Stamp, who is currently busy preparing for her blockbuster mixed rules bout with French-Algerian kickboxing legend Anissa Meksen on 14 January.

The ONE Women's Atomweight World Grand Prix Champion has lofty goals of her own and believes that Zamboanga still has work to do before they can square off.

She noted Zamboanga's back-to-back losses to Ham Seo Hee and made it clear that the #2-ranked South Korean is a hurdle that her friend must overcome before she would consider her a credible opponent in the Circle.

"Tell her to beat Ham Seo Hee first. She lost to her twice. Beat her first, then let's talk," Stamp said in reponse to Zamboanga's call-out.

Source: Media Release

Story first published: Friday, December 9, 2022, 10:57 [IST]
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