Denice Zamboanga wasn’t solely in the fight business before she made the pivotal leap to ONE Championship.
The reigning ONE interim women’s atomweight MMA world champion revealed that she still held a normal office job when she started fighting professionally in the Asian regional circuit.
In an interview with Atleta Filipina, Zamboanga said she worked under the Philippine government, but decided to leave her desk job and move to Thailand for better MMA opportunities.
That gamble ultimately paid off for Zamboanga as ONE Championship came calling shortly after she decided to leave the Philippines.
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Denice Zamboanga said:
“Before I started in ONE Championship, I was still working as a government employee. I have already competed internationally one time before I entered ONE Championship. But when I decided to enter the big stage, I resigned from my [government] job and flew to Thailand alone to pursue MMA. Eventually, ONE contacted me, and that’s how that started.”
Zamboanga started training at Fairtex Training Center in Pattaya, Thailand, before switching camps to Marrok Force in Bangkok.
Her move back to the Philippines, however, proved to be her wisest move yet.
Now training under the tutelage of her older brother Drex, Zamboanga captured the biggest moment of her career while carrying the T-Rex MMA banner.
Zamboanga stopped Alyona Rassohyna for the ONE interim women’s atomweight MMA world title at ONE Fight Night 27 in January at the historic Lumpinee Stadium.
With interim gold over her shoulder, Zamboanga now seeks the undisputed belt when she takes on close friend and reigning atomweight MMA queen Stamp Fairtex in a world title unification match.
Zamboanga and Stamp’s matchup for the undisputed ONE women’s atomweight MMA world title goes down at ONE 173: Denver on August 1 at Ball Arena.
Denice Zamboanga recalls the humble origins of her love for MMA
Denice Zamboanga had a unique start to her MMA journey.
In the same interview with Atleta Filipina, Zamboanga said her older brother Drex originally taught her basic MMA techniques in their garage in Manila.
“My brother just said, ‘Denice, do you want to try fighting in MMA?’ It was just like that, and then eventually, we were training together in our garage. It was just the two of us, and it was only about five square meters of space for training. He was just teaching me the basics of the ground game, submissions, and takedowns.”
Watch Zamboanga’s entire interview below:
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Edited by C. Naik
