The elite Thai striker has spent a long time on the side lines after making history in her latest outing.
ONE Championship has been trying to break into the US market for some time and they’re now scheduled to host their third event in the West.
Back in 2018, ONE signed Demetrious Johnson in a unique trade that saw Ben Askren go the other way, showing their intentions to bring more eyeballs over.
Whilst Johnson did headline the promotion’s first card in the US, ONE Fight Night 10 in 2023, he has since retired with other big names on the roster like Reinier de Ridder leaving ONE behind in recent times.
The promotion’s biggest name in MMA right now is Stamp Fairtex who was able to do what Jonathan Haggerty hopes to achieve by being successful when crossing over sports.
Stamp Fairtex returns to face Denice Zamboanga in Denver on August 1
At ONE Fight Night 14 in September of 2023, Stamp Fairtex made ONE Championship history by becoming the first competitor to hold world championships in MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing.
Since stopping Ham Seo Hee in Singapore to win the vacant atomweight MMA title that was left behind by Angela Lee, the Thai superstar hasn’t been able to defend the belt.
She was scheduled to do just that at ONE 167 last June in Bangkok until a knee injury forced her out of the fight as well as stopping her from headlining ONE 169, the promotion’s September debut in Atlanta.
Her opponent for ONE 167 was her former training partner, Denice Zamboanga, who Stamp still has a great relationship with to this day.
This past January, Zamboanga further cemented her status as the next in line by stopping Alyona Rassohyna in the second round to win the interim title.
ONE Championship have now announced that at the Ball Arena in Denver on August 1, Stamp will return in a title unification clash with Zamboanga to headline ONE 173.
This will be the 27-year-old’s second fight in Denver having fought on the ONE Fight Night 10 card in 2023 where she put on a show against Alyse Anderson before getting the second round knockout.
No other fights have been confirmed for the card at this time.
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Denice Zamboanga will know what to expect from Stamp Fairtex
For the interim champion, Denice Zamboanga, the advantage that she has in this fight is that she has already spent time training alongside Stamp Fairtex.
She knows that the former Muay Thai and kickboxing world champion is an elite striker and having helped her transition into being an MMA fighter, she may be able to exploit some of the champ’s weaknesses.
The difficult aspect for Zamboanga is that regardless of how many times she trained with Stamp, she’s not going to be able to match her on the feet.
One thing that is for certain is that Stamp received an incredible reaction when she fought at ONE Fight Night 10 and that won’t be any different this time around.