Stamp Defeats Mezabarba To Earn Spot In Grand Prix Final
Julie Mezabarba had plenty to say about Stamp Fairtex’s striking ahead of their ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix semifinal bout at ONE: NEXTGEN. Still, she could not find a way to overcome it.
Stamp controlled the tempo on the feet and dominated on the ground en route to a convincing unanimous decision win at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday, 29 October.
Both athletes started tentatively, probing with kicks in order to gauge their distance. The Thai got through with some hard low kicks, but Mezabarba countered with a flurry of right hands when the former ONE Women’s Atomweight Muay Thai and Kickboxing World Champion went to the body.
Mezabarba’s hands were mostly hitting air as Stamp feinted, moved, and slammed in shins to the thigh, so the Brazilian switched things up and drove her foe to the Circle Wall.
She managed to drag Stamp down for a split second, but the Fairtex athlete bounced right back up. Mezabarba then scored with some knees from the clinch, though it was the Pattaya resident who got the final word when she broke out with some solid punches.
Stamp came out for round two throwing hard kicks. The RD Champions athlete caught one, delivered a flurry of piston-like right hands that pushed the Thai back to the Circle Wall, and then double-legged her to the mat. When she tried to tie up her legs, though, Stamp used a whizzer to sweep her own way to the mount.
From there, it was all one-way traffic as Stamp dropped down a barrage of hard elbows and punches to her prone foe. Mezabarba held on, but as she tried to escape, Stamp took her back, continued to pound away, and attempted to lock up a rear-naked choke.
Although the Brazilian survived the torrid second round, it left her a lot of ground to make up in the final stanza.
Mezabarba tried to burst through Stamp’s defenses with jumping and spinning attacks. However, the former two-sport queen maintained her distance with footwork and kept Mezabarba at bay with teeps and hard round kicks.
Despite a solid front kick that snapped her foe’s head back, Stamp couldn’t stop the Brazilian from pursuing the victory. Mezabarba managed to catch another body kick and fired off some right hands, but she couldn’t hem in Stamp long enough to launch any major offense.
After pushing ahead in the second round, Stamp cruised to a unanimous decision win and booked her place in the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix Championship Final.
Now 7-1 in mixed martial arts, Stamp will face off against Ritu “The Indian Tigress” Phogat — the owner of an identical record — for the tournament’s prestigious silver belt and the right to challenge ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion “Unstoppable” Angela Lee.
Read more: ONE: NEXTGEN – Live Results And Highlights For Every Fight
