While Denice "The Menace" Zamboanga is renowned for her striking skills, Ukranian foe Alyona Rassohyna is not bothered by her reputation as both fighters will clash in the co-main event in ONE Fight Night 27.
Alyona Rassohyna believes Denice "The Menace" Zamboanga's perceived advantage on the feet is a bit exaggerated ahead of their showdown for gold this weekend.
Rassohyna and Zamboanga will dispute the ONE Interim Atomweight MMA World Title in the co-main event of ONE Fight Night 27 this Saturday, January 11, inside Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Ukrainian isn’t worried about her opponent’s hands.
While Zamboanga has impressed others with her improved boxing skills, Rassohyna said it only appears that way because she believes the Filipina faced fighters who weren’t on par with her striking.
“The work that I’ve seen from Denice in her last fights showed that the girls who boxed with her were worse in class and technically unprepared to fight her in stand-up. They didn’t have the setups or feints to create entries,” she said.
“As I understand it, their game plan was focused on takedowns, but their stand-up preparation was weak, which gave Denice an advantage in the stand-up.”
And in this fight, Rassohyna is out to prove that she’s someone the Filipina can’t bully around on the feet.
Despite impressing fans with her grappling skills, Rassohyna has shown her own striking prowess. She survived six rounds over the course of two fights with former ONE Muay Thai and Kickboxing World Champion – and now MMA queen – Stamp Fairtex, and held her
own.
“I call myself a well-rounded fighter because I can work both in stand-up and grappling. That was confirmed in my last two fights with Stamp,” she said.
With the winner of this fight getting a crack at Stamp to unify belts, make no mistake about it, Rassohyna has no plans of letting this opportunity go.
“I feel like this is a chance to fulfill my potential – and I will definitely do it. For me, this interim belt is one of the big opportunities, a chance to realize myself on the way to the [undisputed] belt,” she said.
“I’ve been working toward this for a long time. I set a goal for myself long before I signed in this division that I would win the World Title, and my goals are materializing, so I’m happy with how much success I’ve had so far.”