“For the love of ONE Championship, [CEO] Chatri and all the staff, I really wanted to fight tomorrow as much as possible,” Ham wrote. “But I decided to cancel my fight. I thought about It very deeply until the very end and came up with the answer.

“So far in my ONE Championship journey, I’ve never passed hydration and weight test on my first try. It always took me several tries to pass. And I was so embarrassed about that. So this time, I really trained hard every single day, shed a lot of blood and tears and prepared so well for it. And I finally passed today on my very first try.”

“But my opponent failed both weight and hydration until the end. If I had a different opponent, I would have accepted the fight no matter what. Because I believe that everybody makes mistakes once. But if they make the same mistake twice, thrice and even more, I think that’s a big problem.

“This was not her first time to do this. She did this several times already. And even after she failed again this time, she didn’t show a single bit of gesture of apology or self-reflection. I told myself ‘she will make it this time … if she’s a real professional athlete she will do it’. I think I believed her too much.

“If I was someone who fought only for money, I wouldn’t have accepted this fight from the first place. I love ONE and I love to fight. So whenever ONE needs me, I will fight anyone. As most of you guys already know, I purely love this sport so much. So for the past 18 years in this game, I never said no to any opponent.

“But this opponent, I don’t think she even has the basics to call herself a mixed martial artist or professional fighter. It seems like she just hates being too tried so she just fails hydration and weight, gives opponents [a] penalty and goes out there to fight. It might have worked for her until now but not this time.

“I hope she feels embarrassed about this. And I hope she realises how many people’s she’s affecting by her doing this irresponsible action.”

Ranked No 2 in the ONE atomweight division, Ham was already risking a potential title shot against champion Angela Lee by taking the fight against Hirata.

“Of course I know that some of you will say ‘it’s just a weight miss. Why not just fight her?’ But I please hope you understand this time,” she said.

“I kept all my promises with ONE Championship and did everything I was supposed to do to my best ability as a professional fighter.

“I would like to once again thank Chatri for giving me this opportunity. And I’m so sorry. I would also like to say sorry to all my fans who have been waiting for my fight tomorrow. I’ll always stay ready. I’ll see you all very soon.”

Ham is riding a pair of decision victories over former No 1-ranked contender Denice Zamboanga since debuting in ONE last year, which had seemingly earned her a crack at Lee’s belt.

The 26-year-old Canadian-American instead made a second failed attempt at Xiong Jingnan’s strawweight title last month, and Ham told the Post in Singapore this week she had recently been injured.

“Indeed after the second fight [with Denice] I was going through an injury,” she said. “The timing and the place for a fight with Angela Lee just didn’t happen. The fight didn’t materialise so here I am with Itsuki Hirata.”

“I will need a lot of help and guidance to make that fight materialise,” Ham added. “It depends on the matchmakers and how ONE decide to move things along.

“I haven’t got into a detailed thought process of a fight with Angela Lee yet because right now as it stands I do have a very strong challenger in Itsuki Hirata in front of me. So once that fight is over, I’ll think about it.

“If I was to defeat Angela Lee for the ONE Championship world title, I believe that would be the final world title in my career.”