Ham Seo Hee admits extra attention from ‘famous fighter’ Itsuki Hirata made her nervous

At ONE Fight Night 8: Superlek vs. Williams this past weekend, the highly anticipated clash between Ham Seo Hee and Itsuki Hirata finally took place.

The contest between the two clear top contenders in the atomweight division had a lot at stake. Originally scheduled to happen at ONE 163 last November, the fight was called off at late notice due to Hirata missing weight and failing to pass her hydration test.

With the fight postponed by four months, on March 24, ‘Hamzzang’ was finally able to make the statement that she needed. With a unanimous decision win against the Japanese standout, the South Korean veteran got the victory she needed to push her into world title contention.

Whilst she was happy with her performance and where this win takes her, Ham Seo Hee did admit after the contest that felt some external pressure ahead of the fight.

With the contest being delayed for so long, she admitted that the high-profile nature of the fight and her opponent did play a factor in her preparations. During Ham’s post-event interviews, she said:

“I recognize the fact that Itsuki Hirata is a very, very famous person and a very famous fighter. And a lot of attention was actually directed toward me, and that made me nervous a little bit.”

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Ham Seo Hee hoped Angela Lee would have been her next opponent

At ONE Fight Night 8 this past weekend, Ham Seo Hee was able to put this chapter of her career behind her.

The South Korean veteran has had to wait a long time to finally face Itsuki Hirata, but following her unanimous decision victory, she can now look ahead to the future.

With the stakes for the matchup being made very clear ahead of the fight, Ham is now in line for a shot at a world championship. At this current time, it remains unclear how long the atomweight world champion Angela Lee will be away from competition for.

In her post-event interviews, ‘Hamzzang’ revealed that she already believed she would be facing Lee instead of Hirata:

“Although [I expected] my next opponent to be Angela Lee my main intention was to have a match, so it didn’t matter to me that my next opponent was Itsuki or someone else.”

The South Korean veteran has proved that isn’t too fussed about who stands across from her inside the circle. With her mind focused on getting closer and closer to the world championship, the names and faces are irrelevant to her.

She added:

“The moment I signed with ONE there was only one goal, to be able to wear the ONE Championship belt around my waist and own it. So to progress towards that and achieve it would be the optimal outcome.”