Stamp Fairtex admits she felt “a bit of regret” relinquishing the atomweight belt to Denice Zamboanga

Three-sport superstar Stamp Fairtex vacated her MMA throne to Denice Zamboanga last year, but the Thai admits there’s a very small sense of regret.

The Fairtex Training Center superstar was slated to lock horns with her former training partner and interim champ Zamboanga in a world title unification matchup in August last year.

However, her surgically-repaired knee acted up again, forcing her onto the sidelines for an additional couple of months.

Being the champion that she is, though, the former three-sport ONE world champion relinquished her spot as the divisional queen, citing that she didn’t want to hold up the division.

In a recent exchange with ONE Championship, Stamp Fairtex opened up on her missed world title unification showdown and detailed why there’s a little bit of remorse over her decision to step down.

“I thought my knee had recovered, but in reality, it wasn’t 100 percent yet. There were moments of frustration, but never enough to make me give up. I felt like I hadn’t taken good enough care of my body, so I went back to focusing 100 percent on physical therapy,” the 28-year-old shared.

“I was happy for Denice because I know how hard she works, though I did feel a bit of regret giving it up so easily, considering I put in blood, sweat, and tears to earn it.”

Stamp Fairtex eager to run it back against Kana

Though her return suffered yet another delay, Stamp Fairtex eventually made her comeback into the Circle at ONE 173 in Tokyo, Japan, last November.

There, the Thai striking specialist squared off against former K-1 champion Kana Morimoto in an atomweight kickboxing tiff.

While she didn’t emerge with a win, the Fairtex fighter was glad to get some form of action to warm herself up before another explosive campaign inside the Circle this year.

During her post-fight interview with Nick Atkin, Stamp Fairtex declared that she’d be happy to run it back with Kana once she’s firing on all cylinders, knowing very well she could pull one back against the Japanese slugger.

“Yeah, if I have another chance, I’d like to rematch with her with a good body, better than now. In the second round, I punched her body and she got hurt, and I can see that I could hurt her,” she noted.