"There's a lot of pressure on me" - Denice Zamboanga pushing through pain and doubt ahead of world title shot

The recent career of Denice Zamboanga has been defined by an unfortunate fact of combat sports: significant injuries. She has already proven herself to be the top contender in the atomweight division, but her plans have been disrupted several times.

After losing her opportunity to fight for the world championship at ONE 167, when Stamp Fairtex was injured ahead of their main event clash, her interim world title fight suffered the same fate.

Zamboanga was booked to face Alyona Rassohyna at ONE Fight Night 25 but she was forced to withdraw from the fight after pulling her hamstring deep into camp.

The two ranked superstars have now been rescheduled for ONE Fight Night 27 on Jan. 10 in Lumpinee Stadium, where an interim world champion will be crowned in the co-main event of the evening.

In a recent interview with The MMA Superfan, Denice Zamboanga said that athough she isn't letting it affect her mindset, her injury still looms overhead:

"Honestly, I can still feel my injury sometimes. I treat it as normal, but there are times that it really hurts a lot. It doesn't totally affect my training, but I put in more for my motivation and push in training because there's a lot of pressure on me."

Watch the full interview below:

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Denice Zamboanga won't let this stop her

Denice Zamboanga has spent enough time waiting for the biggest fight of her career to date and she's already proven what she's capable of.

When Stamp Fairtex withdrew from ONE 167, the number one contender chose to stay on the card and earned another decisive win at the Impact Arena.

Bringing the belt back to the Philippines is her key motivation coming into this fight and no injury is going to dampen that focus.

Zamboanga will look to put her best foot forward on Jan. 10.