Daven Tamayo

Denice Zamboanga, Jackie Buntan rise as ONE's new breed of champions

Article (news)

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17467126516281746712660716.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Denice Zamboanga and Jackie Buntan. Handout"/>Denice Zamboanga and Jackie Buntan. Handout</div>MANILA, Philippines – This year might belong to the Filipinas of ONE Championship.After having no Filipina world champions in ONE Championship in its first 13 years, the promotion now has two in just a six-month stretch thanks to ONE Strawweight Kickboxing World Champion Jackie Buntan and now-undisputed ONE Atomweight MMA World Champion Denice &quot;The Menace&quot; Zamboanga.Buntan recalls the first time she spent time with Zamboanga — which happened in December 2022 when they both competed at ONE Fight Night 5 in the Filipina-American&#x27;s first fight at Mall of Asia Arena in the Philippines.&quot;When me and Denice both fought on the same card in Manila, I remember walking to the warm-up room post-fight and we were both icing our faces — we had a laugh about that,&quot; Buntan said.Back then, the two were merely on-the-rise contenders looking to build themselves up after experiencing their first setbacks in the promotion.Buntan was fresh off a loss to Smilla Sundell when they competed for the inaugural ONE Strawweight Muay Thai World Title, while Zamboanga was reeling from back-to-back defeats to Ham Seo Hee.Both Buntan and Zamboanga ended up victorious that night, with the former beating Amber Kitchen while the latter edged out Lin Heqin in the show&#x27;s opener.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/othersports/2025/5/2/injured-stamp-relinquishes-title-zamboanga-now-undisputed-champ-1432">READ: Injured Stamp relinquishes title, Zamboanga now undisputed champ </a></div>More than two years later, the two are now the queens of their respective divisions as they haven&#x27;t lost since then, with both women winning their next three fights to finally reach the top of their weight classes.&quot;It&#x27;s a deeply significant and proud moment to be one of the two Filipinas in ONE Championship to reach World Champion status,&quot; Buntan said.&quot;To have two Filipinas be at the top of their divisions at the same time just shows the growth of women in martial arts during this day and age.&quot;