The following is an article following Rin Nakai's 2nd fight.
As her fight approaches, more articles will be translated.
When she was an amateur she trained at public facilities, now she is under the guidance of Coach Usami. They met last summer. Usami once flourished as an amateur wrestler, after that he started competing in MMA and became "Wild Usami". He fought in the Pro Shooto ring. Nakai had heard and knew the name Usami. So at the time, she wanted to go and see what training with him would be like.
"From when he first started training me, I thought that he was very strict when it comes to Martial Arts, one could say he had absolutely no compromise, I thought he was a scary person" (laughter)
When Rin looks back she remembers that in the beginning it didn't go well.
However as time went on, his unbending attitude towards Martial Arts started to influence her.
"I thought that if I train with this person, surely I'll get stronger, so I wanted to learn from him"
When she came to train the first time, Usami felt and thought to himself that this is the kind of kid that can get strong.
"When I sparred with her and saw her form, I thought she could quickly become a talent in Martial Arts. It was her mental/spiritual level. She didn't hold back on her partners and had a very strong heart. She also had wonderful material/physical attributes. She was solidly built and she had soft muscles. She was well suited for Martial Arts. I thought to myself that I want to teach this kid."
Nakai thinks that meeting Usami was necessary. Usami had been operating a gym for several months in his hometown of Imaji, and he knew how strict he had to be with pro fighters remembered Nakai.
"Be serious and come to practice with determination" he told Nakai. When she heard that, Nakai's heart was decided to return and train with Usami.
"No matter how strict, I was going to push through it!" Nakai told herself. So she started taking the 1 hour drive to and 1 hour back trip every day to train.
When Nakai looks back at how she felt back then
"I wanted to go and do Martial Arts, I was determined! Even though I hadn't stuck with Judo, no matter how strict this got I was going to keep on training! During that time I was was resolute, I believed in myself and that feeling got stronger"
Since she had returned from college, about 1 year had passed. She was approaching her 20th birthday, and she made a decision while she was 19.
"My fresh start, it will be my Pro-Debut fight, so on October 1st, in Osaka at Umeda Stella Hall there was a MMA event called Pancrase 2006 Blow Tour, in the 2nd fight in the Pancrase women's division I entered into my Pro-Debut. My opponent had been fighting for more than 5 years and was a veteran, Ayaka Ito. I decided that I wanted to win or lose quickly. During a brawl, I hit her with a right hook and she started bleeding from the nose. At 1:25 of the 1st round the doctor stopped the fight because the opponents nasal bone was badly damaged."
The inexperienced Nakai thought it had been a difficult victory, perhaps she had to high of expectations, however she won her debut by TKO.
When she left the pro-debut ring, "I was surprised because I hadn't been nervous at all"
"In my debut, Usami gave me my victory. He is truly amazing."
Usami said,
"We trained for all possible situations, she went into the fight with power/strength and won, I think she has a lot of potential"
After her victory Nakai did a series of backflips in the ring.
Because of her gymnastics training, it was a magnificent performance, the 800 people in attendance erupted in cheers.
"Since I won, I was so happy, I didn't want to get down from the ring yet, so I thought I'll do some flips (laughter). Some old skills. When everyone got excited and started clapping it made me happy as well. So I thought to myself that I will do this when I win from now on, I want to give the crowd something to remember."
After the fight Usami said to Nakai
"This day is your true beginning"
On that day's victory, Nakai thought to herself, that she really wanted to become strong in martial arts.
"There is nothing to do for me but this"
"My second life" is kind of exaggerated but, but this is where I wanted to depart from again. I only have a little experience, so I want to get better quickly. I started to look forwards to it."
On 5/19, Nakai had her 2nd fight for Smackgirl
No comments:
Post a Comment