Girl's S-Cup Announced

Some of the contestants and participants of one of my personal favorite events has been announced.

Tournament Participants:

2009,2010,2012 Champion Rena Kubota

Lorena Klijn

Christina Jurjevic

5 more will be added

Shootboxing said more foreign fighters will be brought in for the tournament

Matchs:

Madoka Jinnai vs Ai Takahashi

(Revenge match)

Mio

V.V Mei

__________________________________________________________________

Due to scheduling the Girl's S-Cup will be going on near a Deep Jewels and J-Girls event. This means that potential fighters from these organizations will be hard to acquire for the event, so Shoot Boxing seems to be brining in some fighters from abroad for the tournament. Lorena has made it to the semi-finals of the tournament and has since then competed for the organization several times. Christina Jurjevic participated in the 2010 Girl's S-Cup and after a 2 year absence has returned to action. She, like Rena, also represented Shoot Boxing on TV where she fought 3 comedians. As far as the other 5, contestants from either Thailand, China, Taiwan or Korea can be expected to make an appearance as they have in the past. Ham Seo Hee could potentially be placed on the card.

Madoka Jinnai recently lost to Ai Takahashi in a hotly contested match that went several extension rounds. The young fighter has promised revenge and will face Ai under Shoot Boxing rules.

Since her drop in weight, it seems that Mei will most likely be fighting at 48 kg and so will be Mio. It is not yet known if they will be fighting each other or if opponents will be found for them.

Rin Nakai Blog 6/30

† I think that everyone already knows that I, Rin Nakai, will be participating in the UFC Fight Night Japan event at Saitama Super Arena on 9/20.　♡(๑≧౪≦)!

Please come and support me at Saitama Super Arena, all of my fans should come~　Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

From now on, I am the UFC's Rin Nakai, everyone knows the UFC, it is by far the biggest promotion in the world, they are the worlds biggest stage, for me to participate at this level is of great significance for me.

However, I am also nervous about the UFC, it is an unknown world to me, yet I also feel like my life's work is coming to fruition, it is like what they call the American Dream and I want it, so I'm full of hope and anxiety, it's a complicated state of mind.

With me being active in the UFC, I can become more famous and popular in Japan and Asia, and with that hopefully I can help the UFC get more popular over here as well.

So I am also working towards US-Japanese relations and world peace.

In entering a new organization, the UFC, I am becoming a newcomer, so  I have to be humble, I will be the newbie, the freshman, how do you say wet behind the ears. That is why I dressed up like a motif from Madonna's Like a Virgin for the press conference, a pure white swing wedding dress.

Since I'm the first women to fight for the UFC from Japan or Asia, I feel like I need to open a path for them so I will try my hardest.　ξ（✿ ☯‿☯〃）ξ

Tate and Nakai: Records and Skills

Earlier this week at a press conference for UFC Japan, the match-up between Miesha Tate and Rin Nakai was made official. This will mark the debut for the undefeated Rin Nakai and will be a high profile fight for Miesha. As Rin may be unknown to a lot of fans, I have decided to write about the upcoming fight.

Records

Let's start by analyzing their records. Without a doubt, Miesha has the more impressive record. Miesha has fought several ranked opponents and took Ronda farther than Ronda has ever been before. The impression going into the fight will probably be that Miesha is a proven top tier fighter, whereas Rin has faced a bunch of nobodies. There is a hint of truth to this, but it isn't as drastic as it may seem. Of Rin's 17 opponents, 7 have losing records. Of Miesha's 19 opponents 6 have losing records. Rin has 8 wins against opponents with winning records and while Miesha has faced 13 opponents with winning records she only won in 9 of those fights. So while Miesha has the more impressive record, Rin's accomplishments should not be diminished to the level of saying she has only fought cans. Especially considering her last 3 victories.

Skills

Having once bore the nickname "Takedown", it is pretty obvious what Miesha's background and game plan is going into most fights. Having been a solid wrestler since high school, Miesha has developed an aggressive grappling style that allows her to work for submissions and ground and pound. A look at fight metric reveals that Miesha has landed 37% of her takedowns during her career and that she lands 2.95 takedowns per 15 minutes on average. Landing a little less than half of her takedowns, Miesha aggressively goes for the takedown and usually eventually gets it. Recently, she has tended to utilize her striking more then go for the takedown. Her striking isn't terrible and going into this fight she will enjoy not only a reach/height advantage but a skill advantage in that department.

Like Miesha, Rin has been involved in martial arts since a young age. Rin was 5th in the All-Japan Judo tournament in Middle School, was ranked 3rd in High School and went to college with the hope of going to the Olympics until an injury sidelined her for awhile. Using her Judo, Rin likes to take her opponents down and either TKO them or submit them with armlocks. Rin is also a short and powerful fighter. A benefit of this is her low center of gravity which makes it harder to take her down. In addition to having a low center of gravity, Rin has worked with Seiko Yamamoto, 4x's World Wrestling Champion, in the past so her takedown defense should be pretty good. An interesting side note going into this fight is that Miesha has faced an Olympic Judoka twice before, so we will get to see if that experience will help her. Her aggressive striking played right into Ronda's Judo in their last fight so it should be interesting to see if she repeats that. As far as Rin's striking goes, she tends to circle her opponents, throw some kicks, maybe throw a one of shot punch or knee. Her height works against her in this department. In her toughest fights to date, she was stunned by her opponents but recovered well. She strikes in order to get into clinching range so she can take people down.

A video of Rin Nakai showing some Judo Throws

Achievements

Miesha Tate

MMA

Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion

Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Tournament Winner

FCF Bantamweight Champion

Submission Grappling

2008 FILA No-Gi Silver Medalist

2008 FILA World Team Trials Women's Gi Winner

2009 FILA Women's Team Trials Runner-Up

Amateur Wrestling

2005 WIAA State Champion 

2005 WIAA All-State

Rin Nakai

MMA

Valkyrie Champion

First Queen of Pancrase

Undefeated

Judo

All Japan Middle School Judo 5th

Ranked #3 in HighSchool

Rena and Little Tiger on Ninja Warrior

Rena and Little Tiger are both confirmed contestants for this year's Sasuke, Ninja Warrior in the States. Looking at the roster of 100 people it looks like Rena is representing Shoot Boxing and Little Tiger will be representing Muay Thai. I didn't recognize any other women as martial artists on the list. This will be Rena's 2nd time on the course to my knowledge, having actually done pretty well her first time. She just wasn't able to jump from the trampoline to the rope net. I am fairly certain that this is Little Tiger's first time. Sasuke is not only a popular show in Japan, but the world. This is some good exposure for the two.

Miesha Tate vs Rin Nakai Offical

It is Offical!! 

Rin Nakai vs Miesha Tate set for UFC Japan

Emi Fujino Blog: It was a Decision

I've returned to Japan safely.

I went down like a sinking ship in my WSOF 10 title match.

I was utterly defeated in a 5 round decision.

I am sorry.

Jessica was very strong.

But the fight was a lot of fun!

I am so thankful for the chance to fight the best in the world.

I probably have some damage here and there and I bled more than usual.

During the fight I had some pain here and there, and to actually fight 5 rounds was difficult.

In the middle of the fight I hit her with a punch and injured my hand. （汗）

I would really like to thank those that supported me!!

Even though I was far away, receiving everyone's messages was really reassuring.

Everything was going well, I didn't have any mental strains going into the fight.

I had worried about my stamina, but thanks to my hard training at GODS and Martial Arts's Gym, I was able to go 5 rounds.

Now I'm going to watch the fight, look at all my mistakes, and continue to do my best.

I'm feeling good even though I'm all lumpy, time to go forward (lol)

It was really a blessing to get to fight at that place.

To stand in such a place, to get here now I've had to overcome so many things, to the officials of Deep Jewels. those that I train with at Gods, Martial Art's Gym, Hearts, Wajutsu Keishukai, my trainers, to those who supported me, I was able to do this because of you.

That is why I had to accept every round.

Thank you so much.

In the car on the way back, Jon Fitch was behind us.

There was so many famous fighters that for myself to be in the middle of it was a beyond strange.

Good bye Las Vegas.

I will have my revenge.

Team Las Vegas.

This is my favorite picture that the photographer took and gave us.

Mei and Taiyou-kun, thank you so much for coming.

And I would also like to thank Tsuda who because he wasn't a second didn't come, but still came with me to the airport. Instead of going, you helped me shave time and have helped me with my training.

Thank you for always supporting me.

It is a great thing that I do Martial Arts.

I have a sense of my reflexes, and it isn't anything but myself, it's good that I've continued.

I like Martial Arts.

I didn't have any jet lag today when I got out of bed.

I have to work today (tears)

It's the same every time, after a fight I have a sense of meaninglessness.

It is such a boring time.

Even more because I lost.

J-Girls 2014 ~ The Shining Wild Angels 2nd results

撮影 石井晃（gravity）

On Sunday, J-Girls held a kick boxing event that had some interesting fights. The two fights that really stood out to me were Ai Takahashi vs Madoka Jinnai and Yukari Yamaguchi vs Megumi. Takahashi seems to have really turned the jets on recently since her losses to Mizuki. Her fight with Jinnai looks like it was a very close fight requiring an extension round, which 1 judge scored for Jinnai. It was nice to see Takahashi fighting some high level talent instead of some of the imports she fights in Shoot Boxing for a change. Mizuki's training partner Yukari Yamaguchi looked about as good as you can in a Pro Debut fight. The 15 year old, cornered by Mizuki, required only a little more than a minute to KO her opponent. She is one to keep your eyes on.

Pro Fights

Ai Takahashi defeated Madoka Jinnai via Majority Decision

The fight was a draw so went to an extension round

Aki Gureisha defeated Kumi Nanba via Unanimous Decision

In the 3rd Rd, Nanba was knocked down

Crusher Keiko Matsukawa defeated Date Nori via Majority Decision

Yoko Odamaki defeated Haruka Asai via Majority Decision

Ruri Shiraishi defeated Basara Nisiya via Unanimous Decision

Kaori Sebata defeated Date Hana via Unanimous Decision

Due to a draw the fight went to an extension round

In the extension round Date received a red card for using an elbow

Fuuka Yoshino defeated Momoka via Unanimous Decision

Yukari Yamaguchi defeated Megumi via KO in 1:08 of RD 1

Amateur Fights

Norika Ryuu defeated Noriko Soutome via KO in :47 of RD 1

Saho Yoshino defeated Midori Katou via Unanimous Decision

Katou was downed in RD 1

Kawani Amano defeated Date Riaru via Unanimous Decision

Reiko Tanaka defeated Husae Harada via Unanimous Decision

Hinata Terayama defeated Miki Kametsu via KO :49 of RD 2

Kemetsu went down in RD 1