ONE Championship has upheld the controversial split decision loss of Denice Zamboanga to Seo Hee Ham in Friday's ONE: Empower card.
After a thorough review by the promotion's Competition Committee, the officials ruled there weren't any rules broken in the outcome of the match which led to the Filipina's early exit from the ONE Women's Atomweight World Grand Prix.
In a report of South China Morning Post, ONE chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong shared that nine of the 14 members of the competition committee, composed of officials, experts, former athletes, and judges, stood by the result.
"It's just one of these things,” he said. “When I look at it objectively, I still believe Denice won, but I respect and can see how the judges scored it for Ham. It went to the committee, and I was obviously wrong relative to the committee."
"I do feel Denice was owed at least a fair due process instead of just leaving it hanging there, but at the same time, I think both Ham and Denice can be very proud of their performances."
Ham advances to semis
The decision enables Ham to advance to the semifinals together with Itsuki Hirata of Japan, Ritu Phogat of India, and Stamp Fairtex of Thailand.
Zamboanga dropped to an 8-1 (win-loss) record and Ham improved to 24-8.
Zamboanga, however, won't come home empty handed as she will get a chance to return to the ONE Circle soon, in another alternate bout in the Grand Prix, this time against Julie Mezabarba of Brazil who holds a 9-2-1 record.
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