By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Filipina mixed martial artist (MMA) Denice Zamboanga increased her chances of getting that title shot in the women’s atomweight division after schooling Noelle Grandjean of Thailand during their ONE 167 clash on June 8, 2024, in Bangkok, Thailand.
Zamboanga pulled off a masterful performance and was rewarded with a convincing unanimous decision win by all the official match judges.
Despite going up against a pressure fighter like Grandjean who was always hounding her inside the cage, Zamboanga proved she was the more experienced MMA artist after outworking the Thai in the stand-up fight.
As early as the first round, Zamboanga already hurt Grandjean with several vicious hooks to the head and was also efficient with her body shots.
With a little resistance from the Thai, Zamboanga almost had a perfect striking performance when she kept on landing her power shots to the head.
Grandjean continued her hounding pressure in the second round but Zamboanga already read her game plan and was wise to backpedal when she was set up for a flurry of wild haymakers.
Midway through the second, Zamboanga began to operate on the offensive end and snapped Grandjean’s head several times with her well-timed hooks and counter uppercuts.
It was all Zamboanga until the third as the Filipina stepped on the gas pedal in the final frame, closing out the three-round showdown with more points in the stand-up exchanges.
Zamboanga just added another convincing victory to her win-loss record and just improved to 11 wins and two losses while Grandjean dropped to 5-3.
With the win, Zamboanga became the top challenger to dethrone the current queen of the atomweight division, Stamp Fairtex.
