Itsuki Hirata says Ham Seo Hee’s experience has made her ‘used to the pressure’

Itsuki Hirata believes her youth will be key to scoring a win over Ham Seo Hee on Friday (March 24) night.

‘Android 18’ returns to the Circle for the first time since August with eyes on scoring the biggest win of her career and potentially securing a ONE world title opportunity in the process. Standing in her way will be 34-fight veteran Ham Seo Hee, a South Korean striker who is yet to experience defeat under the ONE Championship banner.

With that type of experience, Itsuki Hirata expects ‘Hamzzang’ to handle the pressure of the moment with relative ease, but believes youth will give her an edge when they square off at ONE Fight Night 8 on Prime Video.

Itsuki Hirata said in an interview with the promotion:

“Her strength is her experience. With her many fights, she is probably used to the pressure and has a quick mind during the fight. I think that's where the difference between us lies. Her weakness is probably age? I think I have to win with my stamina due to my youth.”

At just 23 years old, Itsuki Hirata is an impressive 6-1 in her combat sports career. After suffering her first setback against Jihin Radzuan at ONE X in March 2022, the Japanese standout bounced back in a big way, earning a win over ‘MMA Sister’ Lin Heqin in August.

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Ham Seo Hee ready to take care of unfinished business with Itsuki Hirata

Ham Seo Hee is going into Friday’s highly anticipated atomweight clash with bad intentions.

Originally, Ham and Itsuki Hirata were scheduled to square off at ONE 163 in November, but ‘Android 18’ failed to make weight for the showdown, leaving Ham with two options: accept a catchweight bout or call off the fight. Ham chose the latter, which resulted in her receiving some backlash despite the fact that she was the one that successfully made weight for the matchup.

Speaking to ONE Championship, ‘Hamzzang’ had some harsh words for Hirata regarding her November weight miss and expressed her desire to finish things early on Friday night when they finally step inside the Circle with one another.

Ham said:

“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."

“I want to finish my unfinished business with her. There were fans with different opinions about my decision to not accept the catchweight in our last fight, so I want to finish this fight with her.”

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch all the action at ONE Fight Night 8 live and for free in U.S. primetime.