{"id":102034,"date":"2025-08-28T11:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/102034\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:25:10","slug":"denice-zamboanga-withdraws-from-one-173-world-title-defense-against-ayaka-miura-due-to-medical-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/102034\/","title":{"rendered":"Denice Zamboanga Withdraws From ONE 173 World Title Defense Against Ayaka Miura Due To Medical Reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Undisputed ONE Women\u2019s Atomweight MMA World Champion Denice \u201cThe Menace\u201d Zamboanga<\/a> has been forced to withdraw from her highly anticipated first World Title defense against Japanese star Ayaka \u201cZombie\u201d Miura<\/a> due to medical reasons.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old superstar announced the news via social media on Thursday evening in Manila, Philippines, citing health concerns that prevent her from competing at ONE 173: Superbon vs. Noiri<\/a> inside Tokyo\u2019s Ariake Arena on November 16.<\/p>\n

Zamboanga expressed her disappointment in an emotional statement, acknowledging the significance of the matchup and apologizing to her opponent, the world\u2019s largest martial arts organization, and its global fan base.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Menace\u201d stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, due to medical reasons, I am unable to step into the Circle this time. It is heartbreaking for me to pull out of this match, and I want to sincerely apologize to Ayaka, to ONE Championship, and to all the fans who were anticipating this bout.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Filipina captured the ONE Interim Women\u2019s Atomweight MMA World Championship with a second-round TKO victory over Alyona Rassohyna<\/a> at ONE Fight Night 27<\/a> this past January. Four months later, she was elevated to undisputed status when former titleholder Stamp Fairtex<\/a> relinquished the gold.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Miura earned her shot at the belt through an impressive five-bout winning streak, which includes four wins at atomweight, positioning herself as the top contender in the division.<\/p>\n

Zamboanga has not provided a specific timeline for her return, but she expressed her commitment to coming back stronger once she has fully recovered from her medical issues.<\/p>\n

Zamboanga Sends Personal Apology To Miura<\/p>\n

Denice Zamboanga also drafted a personal apology for Ayaka Miura. The Japanese submission specialist was seeking her first ONE World Title in front of her home crowd.<\/p>\n

The Filipina superstar said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was truly excited to defend my belt against you at ONE 173. I know how strong and talented you are, which makes this even more heartbreaking for me. I sincerely apologize that I cannot compete this time due to medical reasons, and I hope we can share the Circle in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Zamboanga\u2019s withdrawal, ONE 173 remains a stacked event featuring multiple World Championship bouts.<\/p>\n

The main event features a World Title showdown between ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion Superbon<\/a> and interim champion Masaaki Noiri<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The card also includes a cross-divisional clash between ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion Joshua \u201cThe Passion\u201d Pacio<\/a> and ONE Flyweight MMA World Champion Yuya \u201cLittle Piranha\u201d Wakamatsu<\/a>, as well as a ONE Heavyweight MMA World Title rematch between reigning king \u201cReug Reug\u201d Oumar Kane<\/a> and former champ Anatoly \u201cSladkiy\u201d Malykhin<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Undisputed ONE Women\u2019s Atomweight MMA World Champion Denice \u201cThe Menace\u201d Zamboanga has been forced to withdraw from her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-102034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}