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Ham Seo Hee may have ticked off some Japanese fans, but she hopes that distrust is only temporary.
The Korean all-time great was rebooked against a rising star in Itsuki Hirata of Japan for ONE Championship’s ONE Fight Night 8 card on March 24 this week. The fight has already been booked once for last November but was canceled the day before when Itsuki Hirata missed weight.
Ham Seo Hee, a veteran of thirty-two fights, refused to accept a fight at a catchweight for Hirata’s weight miss and apparent lack of remorse.
However, now that the fight is back on, Ham hopes that Japanese fans won’t hold it against her. Speaking to ONE Championship, here’s what the Korean atomweight had to say:
"I know I’m fighting a Japanese fighter and some of you might have hated my decision in our last fight. But please show me some love and support also. I love Japan!"
Potentially the most successful fighter to ever come out of South Korea, Ham has yet to lose since leaving the UFC over six years ago. She’s fought for ROAD FC, RIZIN, and now ONE Championship, where she’s 2-0.
A win over Itsuki Hirata should all but guarantee her as the next challenger to Angela Lee’s atomweight belt.
Ham Seo Hee reluctant to call Itsuki Hirata a true fighter due to past weight and hydration failures
While Ham Seo Hee may have agreed to fight Itsuki Hirata, it doesn’t mean that her respect for her as an athlete has been repaired.
Ham points to Hirata’s struggles with the scale and hydration as a major error that’s holding back her Japanese opponent from being taken seriously. During her time at ONE Championship, she’s missed weight three times.
Speaking to ONE Championship, Ham commented on Hirata’s weight-making struggles:
"First of all, she’s not a fighter in my opinion because the basic thing that you should do as a professional fighter is to make weight and hydration."
Ahead of the fight with Ham Seo Hee, Itsuki Hirata has gone 6-1 for ONE Championship. She most recently took a close decision from Lin Heqin at ONE Fight Night on Prime Video 1 last August, rebounding from a split decision loss to Jihin Radzuan. Still just twenty-three years old, the Japanese judoka trains out of Serra-Longo Fight Team in New York.
Sitting just outside of ONE Championship’s official atomweight rankings, Itsuki Hirata can insert herself immediately into the world title conversation by beating No. 2-ranked Ham Seo Hee in March.
ONE Fight Night 8 will take place on March 24 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The event streams on Amazon Prime for North American subscribers in US prime time.
