Smackgirl held a press conference today at the BRAINBUSTER Sports Bar in Tokyo to finally announce the additions to the Open Weight World REMIX tournament. The semi finals will be at the Apr. 25 Korakuen Hall show. Both look to be very strong additions. The first semi final match will have Smackgirl Middleweight Champion Hitomi Akano against Smackgirl Open Weight Champion HIROKO. HIROKO's record is 4-0 and she won the title from Yoko Takahashi at the Sept. 6 Smackgirl show. The big thing is that HIROKO has a significant size advantage over Akano. She is 180cm tall and weighs 77kg and Akano is 164cm tall and weighs 62kg. When asked about this, Akano said it's an open weight tournament and it comes with the territory. That reaction is not surprising. Despite the size difference, this will be HIROKO's toughest test to date and it should be very interesting.
The other semi final match has pro wrestler Atsuko Emoto against Ginele Marquez (pictured). Emoto may use the Bullfight Sora comedy gimmick as a wrestler but should not be taken lightly in MMA. Marquez' 5-7-1 record is somewhat deceieving. Her most recent fight was a loss to rising star Sarah Kaufman at the Oct. 19 HCF and has lost to Tara LaRosa, Amanda Buckner & Tonya Evinger. But she also won over Megumi Yabushita at the July 14 FFF show and has wins over Liz Posener & Molly Helsel. So I guess she likes to take on top fighters and she wouldn't get work if she wasn't delivering entertaining matches. This is why I don't bother too much with rankings. Sometimes win loss records don't tell the whole story. Marquez is currently training with Josh Barnett in California. This is her first match in Japan and could be a turning point in her career. This is shaping up to be a great show.
The other semi final match has pro wrestler Atsuko Emoto against Ginele Marquez (pictured). Emoto may use the Bullfight Sora comedy gimmick as a wrestler but should not be taken lightly in MMA. Marquez' 5-7-1 record is somewhat deceieving. Her most recent fight was a loss to rising star Sarah Kaufman at the Oct. 19 HCF and has lost to Tara LaRosa, Amanda Buckner & Tonya Evinger. But she also won over Megumi Yabushita at the July 14 FFF show and has wins over Liz Posener & Molly Helsel. So I guess she likes to take on top fighters and she wouldn't get work if she wasn't delivering entertaining matches. This is why I don't bother too much with rankings. Sometimes win loss records don't tell the whole story. Marquez is currently training with Josh Barnett in California. This is her first match in Japan and could be a turning point in her career. This is shaping up to be a great show.
No comments:
Post a Comment