Monday, March 05, 2012

Ayaka Hamasaki vs Yuka Tsuji set for May 26 JEWELS show

Emi Fujino punches Mika Nagano
The biggest thing to come out of Saturday's JEWELS show at Shin-kiba 1st Ring was the announcement that Ayaka Hamasaki will defend the JEWELS Lightweight Championship against Yuka Tsuji at the May 26 show at Taisho Azeria in Osaka. This will be JEWELS first trip to Osaka. These days Osaka is a better market for MMA than Tokyo. They'll do OK there. The problem with Saturday's show is there were only five pro MMA matches and the rest was filler. And in the two main matches you have three fighters on losing streaks. Not very inspiring. The main event had Emi Fujino vs Mika Nagano. Nagano is on a two fight losing streak and her last loss to VV Mei must have been very hard to swallow as she was robbed by an incompetent judge. Fujino is a tough fighter and her major flaw is she isn't a finisher. Nagano had her moments but for the most part Fujino had no trouble with her and won by unanimous decision. Fujino said she wants a title shot. Nagano said on her blog that she isn't quitting MMA. She wrestled in high school and college but because of her idol image, she isn't taken seriously. But she has to start winning. The semi main had Takayo Hashi vs Roxanne Modafferi. These two were training partners several years ago. Roxanne said on her blog that she thought she would have to finish Hashi. That's a very tall order. Both were on losing streaks and needed a win. Hashi won by unanimous decision as she controlled the fight on the ground. If she had fought like that in the US, she would have been more successful. I'll never understand why she changed her fighting style. The teenager MIZUKI had no problem with Aussie Alex Chambers and won with an armbar at 4:32 of round one. Former pro wrestler Emi Tomimatsu continued her successful comeback with a unanimous decision win over Amiba. Tomimatsu took her down in the first round and pounded her in the second round. For the most part, Celine had the upper hand over Iris. She got Iris in a rear naked choke but the bell rang to save her. Then in round two she was outpunching her when Iris threw her to the mat with a judo throw and submitted her with a V1 armbar at 2:12 of round two. Iris remains undefeated in her first match at Lightweight. That's it. The rest of the show was filler. It looks like the next show has some potential.

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