Denice “The Menace” Zamboanga may just have her biggest opportunity yet in her next outing when she faces Alyona Rassohyna. The pair are set to square off for the ONE Interim Women’s Atomweight MMA World Title at ONE Fight Night 25 on Prime Video, set for U.S. primetime on Friday, October 4. The event will take place inside the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Reigning divisional queen Stamp Fairtex continues to recuperate from injury, but the stacked division is hungry for a prize to fight for. Thus, the promotion deemed it necessary to introduce an interim belt to be fought between two highly-ranked contenders.  Zamboanga has bounced back nicely since losing back-to-back matches against top contender Ham Seo Hee back at ONE: EMPOWER is in September 2021 then ONE X is six months later. With hard-fought victories over China’s Lin Heqin at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December 2022 and Julie Mezabarba at ONE Fight Night 9 four months later, she has positioned herself as a deserving contender for the division’s top prize. 

She was scheduled to face her former teammate, Stamp, at ONE 167 this past June but it was revealed just a few weeks before their fight that the Thai superstar was injured during training. As a result, the Fairtex athlete had to pull out of their fight, leaving Zamboanga to compete against Noelle Grandjean, who stepped up to fight on short notice. There, the Filipina fighter showed why she was granted an opportunity to fight for the ONE Women’s Atomweight MMA World Title with a dominant performance against the Thai-French warrior. 

Zamboanga vs. Rassohyna: Title shot awaits the winner

With the latest announcement, “The Menace” will now get her coveted shot at gold against one of only two people who dealt a loss to Stamp’s professional MMA record. Rassohyna shocked the world in her promotional debut back at ONE: UNBREAKABLE III in February 2021 by submitting the three-sport World Champion Stamp in the third round of their encounter. 

Seven months later, they would meet again for much larger stakes at the ONE Women’s Atomweight MMA World Grand Prix quarterfinals at ONE: EMPOWER. This time around, Stamp would avenge her loss by edging out the Ukrainian standout and went on to win the prestigious tournament. Rassohyna has been absent from competition for three years now, but she has already proven that she has what it takes to hang with the very best when she is in action. 

The winner of the match between Zamboanga and Rassohya will set herself up for a World Title unification bout with Stamp in the near future, so expect both athletes to pull out all the stops to prove themselves to be the best on the planet today.