MMA News: Seo Hee Ham Excited To Prove Herself In ONE Championship Debut

Highly-regarded South Korean veteran Seo Hee Ham is making her much-anticipated Circle debut this Friday night in Singapore.

The 34-year-old will be looking to make a statement under the ONE Championship banner.

Ham is one of eight participants in the prestigious ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix, which brings together the best atomweight fighters in the world.

The high-profile tournament kicks off at ONE: EMPOWER, which broadcasts live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Ham will face No. 1-ranked atomweight contender Denice Zamboanga of the Philippines in the first round of the tourney.

Many fans and experts consider Ham to be the favorite of the tournament and expect her to blow past the competition to make it through to the finals.

“First of all, I would like to thank everyone who thinks that I am the ‘dark horse’ [to win the tournament],” Ham said.

“But to be honest, I never really thought about who is the toughest challenge for me [in this tournament], because I am just a hundred percent focused on Denice right now. She is the one in front of me. I’m not thinking about the other athletes right now. I need to be focused on Denice.”

“If I win this tournament, it will be the biggest achievement of my career so far.”

Against Zamboanga, Ham will be facing one of the fastest rising stars in ONE Championship. The Filipina warrior is currently undefeated and has finished five of her eight opponents in the cage.

The two women are aggressive, come-forward fighters who are both well-rounded mixed martial artists.

Moreover, they feature similar styles and complement each other quite well.

Ham considers Zamboanga a worthy foe for her first foray into the promotion.

“I didn’t want to be up against a weak opponent. So, when I heard the opponent was Denice, I was glad that I was up against a strong opponent that I could have an awesome match with,” Ham said.

“She seems to like cage wrestling, so I trained largely on defending against that, as well as boxing. I think she’s very strong, for sure. She likes to give her opponent a hard time while wrestling and likes to go to the ground to press them down.”

“Also, seeing how Denice hits her opponents, she doesn’t use a KO punch but makes sure she’s not in the line of the opponent’s range to be hit. I studied a lot of things like this. Overall, I think I need to be careful,” Ham added.

ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong earlier said that the winner of the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix could go on to face division queen Angela Lee for the belt as early as November.

If Ham goes on to defeat Zamboanga, she will need two more victories to win the entire tournament and go on to face the champion.

“I really love ONE Championship, especially the ruleset. It is actually very similar to the ruleset of the organization I was with previously. I believe this ruleset benefits me a lot, and it is very good for me,” Ham stated.

“ONE Championship is the global stage, and I’ve never experienced it before. It was a great choice for me. I am very grateful to them for giving me such a big opportunity.”

ONE: Empower is headlined by a women's strawweight championship clash between reigning titleholder Xiong Jing Nan and Michelle Nicolini.