Third-ranked women’s atomweight contender Denice “The Menace” Zamboanga is elated to see her good friend and former training partner Jeremy “The Jaguar” Miado rising through ONE Championship’s strawweight MMA division.
After struggling in his first few matches in The Home of Martial Arts, Miado now targets his fifth straight win when he welcomes Mansur Malachiev to the promotion at ONE Fight Night 11: Eersel vs. Menshikov this Saturday, 10 June, inside Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Zamboanga has watched Miado grow from a journeyman from the Philippines to one of the most feared strikers in ONE.
For the 26-year-old Filipina, who trained with Miado when they were at Marrok Force, it’s a testament to the amount of work that “The Jaguar” has been putting in.
“Hard work really does pay off because you see it in how he fights nowadays and how better he is in all aspects of the fight game. That’s exactly what brought him into the rankings [back then] in the first place,” Zamboanga said.
Miado believes that he deserves a shot at ONE Strawweight World Champion Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks if he gets past Malachiev, and Zamboanga couldn’t agree more.
The 30-year-old native of Bicol Province has scored some of the biggest wins in the division, including his last one when he finished Danial Williams in impressive fashion in the third round.
“Jeremy has been knocking out his opponents left and right. I honestly think he deserves to get the title shot and face the champion if he wins his next fight,” she said.
He won’t have it easy against Malachiev, though, who comes in with an immaculate 10-0 record and an 80 percent finish rate.
Malachiev hails from the Dagestan region in Russia, known for producing some of the best wrestlers in the world. Despite that, “The Menace” is confident that Miado will come out with the big win.
“Knockout – that’s my prediction for this fight,” she said.
