Momo vs Yamazaki: Perspective

MMA veteran Kenji Osawa and Momo

In May, Deep Jewels 16 will take place. Outside of Japan, attention has been drawn to an amateur fight on the undercard between Momo and Momoko Yamazaki. Attention has been drawn to the fight because of the ages of the competitors as Momo is 12 and Yamazaki is 24. While any competition with such an age gap is bound to raise eyebrows, it is important to understand the circumstances surrounding the match.

First off, it is important to understand that the match is under Deep Jewels amateur rules. Both competitors will wear shin guards, knee pads, thicker gloves, and head gear. Strikes to the head are only allowed on the feet, while strikes like elbows are not allowed. Having witnessed a number of these matches, in effect, the match is divided into two hemispheres. On the feet, the match looks like an amateur kickboxing match, whereas on the ground, it looks like a grappling match. In addition, this match is taking place at a Deep Jewels event. In their professional fights, fights are regularly stopped for nose bleeds and "technical submissions," so it is safe to assume that the refs will be even quicker to stop a fight under the amateur rules.

Second, for those unfamiliar with the Japanese martial arts scene, this match may look like a squash match. I would have to agree, but on a different result. This match is clearly a match designed to build Momo, not Yamazaki. Momo trains at a strong gym with strong fighters and looks to potentially have a bright future. Yamazaki is a 24 year old, untrained, hostess. While it it true that Yamazaki has a 2-3 amateur record going into this fight, those stats are misleading. Her two wins are against opponents who have a combined record of 0-4 and all of those fights were in the Outsider promotion, a promotion that puts less emphasis on skill and more on brawls. Yamazaki was marketed as the hostess with a troubled past. In contrast, Momo has been training at Hakushinkai 6 days a week, four hours a day since she was 3.

Third, while this may seem like weird match making, Momo is following in the foot steps of her fellow gym mates and other young talent. Momo trains at Hakushinkai, a small but strong gym in Toyohashi, a 3 and 1/2 hour train ride from Tokyo. I had the opportunity to visit the gym two years ago and meet Coach Yamaguchi. He made a strong impression on me. Yamaguchi teaches mainly young athletes and above all stresses defense. This can be seen in two of his students, Mizuki Inoue and Yukari Yamaguchi, both of whom have excellent head movement and have been notably hard to hit.

Yukari started out, entering into Karate tournaments when she was 12. She then made her amateur mma debut when she was 13 against a 32 year old. She won the match via armbar. She then fought professionally in Shoot Boxing at 16, where she defeated Deep Jewels Champ and One FC title challenger V.V. Mei and Mio Tsumura in one night to become a Girl's S-Cup Champion.

Yukari vs Mei

Mizuki made her amateur kickboxing debut when she was 14, her pro Shoot Boxing debut at 15, and her mma debut at 16. Interestingly, she fought  and defeated Emi Fujino (29 at the time) when she was 15. She also fought in contact karate tournaments when she was 15. She then fought Alex Chambers when she was 17 and Bec Rawlings when she was 18.

Naoki Inoue, who will be making his UFC debut this year, made his amateur Shoot Boxing debut when he was 13. He also fought in two amateur mma matches when he was 13 and made his pro debut at 15. He is now 10-0.

What this pattern shows, is that Coach Yamaguchi tends to start athletes he feels are able in amateur completion around 13 or 14. Two of these three became world champions and one is making his UFC debut soon.

Matches like this are not that uncommon in Japan. Muay Thai phenom Saya Ito has been competing from a very young age. During her amateur days she fought Tenshin Nasukawa twice, without padding. In these matches, the top amateur female fought the top amateur male. Both eventually become world champions.

Recently, Japanese mma veteran and long-time trainer, Kenji Osawa made a trip to Hakushinkai with a camera crew to film a segment in preparation for Naoki's UFC debut. During his trip, Kenji had the opportunity to see and train with Momo. When asked about what he thought, he responded that "when I sparred with her, I could tell she trains everyday. She is very strong and I think, for her to be able to experience [this fight] will be a big plus for her future. Some fighters in Muay Thai became incredibly strong because they fought from a young age, so I have nothing but high expectations for Momo's future."

Coach Yamaguchi

Below is a message from Coach Yamaguchi:

"Hello to everyone in America, I am Yamaguchi, the chairman of Hakushinkai Karate. I heard there is an argument taking place in America about one of my students Momo fighting an adult, therefore, I would like to state my opinion and understanding in regards to this matter.

First of all, her fight is going to be held under amateur rules in the preliminary part of the event and Deep Jewels amateur rules are very safe. Some of the reports published in America have false information such as Momo will be fighting a professional fighter. That is not true at all. Momo is fighting an amateur fighter with no pro-experience. Also, Momo has been training 6 days a week since she was in kindergarten. So far she has competed in over 100 amateur BJJ, Kickboxing, and Karate matches, therefore, she has far more experience in combat sports than her upcoming opponent Ms. Momoko Yamazaki.

Since Momo is just three centimeteres shorter and three kilograms less than Yamazaki, I have decided to accept the offer from Deep Jewels because I believe Momo is fully capable of fighting Ms. Yamazaki. As far as I know, in the past, Jewels has done fights between 13 year olds vs adults, 12 year olds vs adults, and in those fights, the younger fighters won by submission.

Hakushinkai Karate may not have a large number of professional fighters but one of my students, Mizuki became a professional champion at 16 and received an offer from the UFC whens she was 18. Another student of mine, Yukari, also won a professional title at 16 and recently, Naoki, my other student, signed with the UFC at 19.

If you look at these proven track records of teenage fighters from my dojo, and if you can imagine the effort my students have been putting into training, I hope, all of you out there realize that this matchmaking by Deep Jewels is not something crazy. In addition, I've never forced my students to fight or compete. Momo is very excited about fighting for the promotion she has admired for years and she has been training very hard.

Because of the reasons stated above, I believe there is going to be no problem for Momo to fight Ms.  Yamazaki. But if you ask me, are you sure its not dangerous? Then, I can't say its not dangerous at all because, in any combat sport, there is always a possibility that a competitor could be in danger or lose  the fight in a lopsided manner. All combat sports can be dangerous but I believe the possibility of Momo getting hurt is the same as boxing or wrestling bouts between two competitors in the same weight division. In Japan, there are many young-teenagers competing in BJJ, Judo, Wrestling, and Boxing, and the sport that combined all of these skills is MMA, but I don't believe that this means MMA is more dangerous than these combat sports.

Again, the upcoming fight of Momo will be held under amateur rules and my understanding of these rules is that they are very safe for the competitors. I would also like to thank those who have raised their concern for my student, Momo. If I am one of those in the general public, that doesn't have a lot of knowledge about MMA, I would probably think along the same lines. However, because of the reasons stated above, I would appreciate it if you can understand that Momo's upcoming fight is not something very dangerous. I will probably come to the U.S. again in the near future with one of my students so I would greatly appreciate it if you in America could understand my opinions.

Osu,

Sadanori Yamaguchi
Hakushinkai Karate

Ayaka Hamasaki Profile

Photo from www.genkifights.com

Name: Ayaka Hamasaki (浜崎 朱加)
Birthday: March 31, 1982

Birthplace: Yamaguchi-Ken, Japan

Height: 5"1 (158cm)

Weight: 105lb (47.6kg), 115 (52kg)

Gym: AACC

Record: 14-2
Notable Wins: Herica Tiburcio, Yuka Tsuji, Mizuki Inoue, Ham Seo Hee, Amber Brown, Jinh Yu Frey


Ayaka Hamasaki, is the Invicta FC 105lb Champion, has defended her title twice, is the first Japanese fighter to win an American MMA title, and has been named the atomweight of the year three years in a row. In other words, she is a very impressive fighter. However impressive she is, not a lot is known about this fighter, at least outside of Japan. I first saw her compete in a grappling match against Saori Ishioka in 2011 and have followed her career since. Over that time, I have had the opportunity to interview her several times. The information in this article comes from those interviews, other interviews, people that known Ayaka, and Ayaka herself.

The Pre-MMA Years

Ayaka Hamasaki was mischievous growing up, sometimes skipping school. This annoyed her teachers, who wanted her to join the Judo club, where some of her friends were. Ayaka lived in a dorm near her high school, with roughly 30-40 other kids. In addition, the school had an athletic focus, requiring all of the students to join a sports club. So with little choice in the matter, Ayaka joined the Judo club. In her own words, Judo was heart breaking. Practices were hard, intense and constant. During the school year, Ayaka trained in the morning, went to classes and trained again in the evening. During the summer time, she trained 2 to 3 times a day. During winter break, she trained. Judo was a constant in her life.

After high school, Ayaka continued with Judo through college, where she placed second in the All Japan Junior Judo Championship, losing to a future world champion. Ayaka would not reach any higher though, as she was sidelined with an injury. She continued with Judo even after graduating, however after a year and a half she quit. Having competed in Judo from high school till she was 23, Judo was not something that Ayaka necessarily enjoyed. Judo sometimes made her angry. However, she recognizes that Judo transformed her life and for that she is very grateful.

Post Judo

Rina Tomita liked MMA and was a fan of Miku Matsumoto. Miku was making waves in Japan, competing for and eventually headlining Deep events. At one of those events, Rina asked Miku where she could train, what gym did Miku recommend. As she lived and trained far away from Tokyo, Miku told Rina to go train with Megumi Fujii at AACC. Three months into training at AACC, Rina wanted to get physically stronger. So she met with a personal trainer named Ayaka Hamasaki. As they talked, Ayaka learned that Rina was training at AACC. While Ayaka knew about MMA, this is the first time she heard about women competing. As a result of their meeting, Ayaka went with Rina to AACC. Once there she met Megumi. Ayaka didn't know about Megumi, but was immediately impressed by her physique.

Ayaka, Rina, Megumi

Ayaka didn't want to become a professional fighter. She wanted to exercise and work-off some stress. Even though she was lifting weights through her job as a personal trainer, Ayaka missed the workouts from her Judo days, where she got to use and move her whole body.

When she first started training, Ayaka made an impression on those at the gym. Megumi and Abe-sensei didn't think that Ayaka would go pro, but there was a consensus that she showed promise. While she lacked many of the skills a fighter needs, her background in Judo and her explosive power would provide an excellent foundation. In the beginning, her lack of technique was apparent. It looked like she hated striking, shadowboxing especially, and when Ayaka rolled with Rina, Rina would beat her.

Megumi remembers rolling with Ayaka, both with the gi and then without the gi. Ayaka's movements and responses to her movements impressed her. Knowing about her background, Megumi thought that this kid has got what it takes to make it.

After training for a bout a month, Rina couldn't beat her anymore.

The Grappling Matches

After training for about 3 months, Ayaka started to think about competing in some grappling matches. In addition to her Judo background, she had been going to grappling practice at AACC. Eventually, someone asked her if she'd like to compete and she started competing in 2008.

At 29, Ayaka competed in her 5th grappling match, this time against the young up-and-coming pro-wrestler, Hikaru Shida. Hikaru is a successful pro-wrestler now, but at the time her bjj coach thought that she had the best grappling of any pro-wrestler he had trained. In his mind, she was capable of doing both pro-wrestling and real fights. Going into the fight, he had seen Ayaka compete in person, at a blue belt bjj tournament, where Ayaka lost. In his opinion, she was a good grappler but lacked basic bjj techniques, like how to break an opponent's guard. While it is true that Ayaka was still developing, it took her only 48 seconds to submit Hikaru.

Ayaka defeated Hikaru in 48 seconds

Amateur MMA

While Ayaka was coming to AACC, she was only coming to the grappling practices. However, after some time, she was invited to come to the striking classes. Even though she didn't know how to do anything, she really enjoyed it. Around the same time, Ayaka went to an MMA event for the first time and saw Megumi fight. Even though she had just started striking, after seeing Megumi fight, she wanted to give it a try. This is how a year and a half after walking into AACC, Ayaka made her amateur debut.

She made her debut in 2009, fighting twice in one night for Jewels. She finished the first fight via submission and the second fight went to a draw. Three months later she won another amateur fight. Two months later she won two more amateur fights in the same night. All-in-all she went 4-0-1 as an amateur, with 3 submissions.

The Pro-Debut

Ayaka's last two amateur fights occurred in one night. It was a Shooto event hosted by Yoichi Suzuki, the head of Alive Gym. He was obviously impressed by what he saw, as shortly after the event, Ayaka received an offer for a professional fight. Even though she never had a goal of fighting professionally, when the offer came, she talked to Megumi about it. They quickly decided to accept the offer. It was just a step up from what Ayaka was already doing.

Ayaka made her pro-debut against Konkua Sasaki in 2009. Kinuka was a veteran of Smackgirl and had amassed a record of 3-7, a common Japanese phenomenon at the time, before the fight. Ayaka didn't know anything about her opponent. Despite her record, Kinkuka did not go down easily, actually dropping Ayaka in the opening round. But Ayaka kept coming forward and submitted her in the 2nd round. 2009 had been a big year for Ayaka, fighting 5 times as an amateur and making her pro-debut.

The Jewels Years

Shooto was not the only organization that saw potential in Ayaka. Yuichi Ozono, the head of Jewels, noticed her as well. She had fought for Jewels several time as an amateur. When he saw her fight, he saw how good she moved. Megumi had been known as the "Queen of the Quick Kill", and he saw the similar quality in Ayaka. He knew that she could compete on the world stage.

This is how she was brought into the Jewels tournament to decide the first 52kg champion. In the first round of the tournament, Ayaka quickly won her match by submission in 48 seconds. In other matches, Mika Nagano defeated Celine Haga, Ham Seo Hee won her match, and Sakura Nomura won her match. The 2nd round and final match would be fought on the same day. In the 2nd round, Ayaka defeated Sakura, and Ham defeated Nagano. 5 matches later, Ayaka defeated Ham be decision to become the inaugural Jewels 52kg Champion. She had been fighting professionally for a little more than a year.

Afterwards, Ayaka fought Mizuki Inoue, who had also won a tournament. Ayaka dominated the match with her grappling, repeatedly taking Mizuki down then going for numerous submission attempts. This set up a Ham rematch, since Ham had beaten Saori Ishioka and V.V. Mei sine their last fight. In what was a highly anticipated rematch, Ham got injured in the first round. At the end of the round, she was not able to stand and it was obvious the fight was over.

After dominating the young talent in Mizuki, with whom she was very impressed, and having a disappointing result in the match with Ham, Ayaka fought what she considers to be the most important match of her Jewels career. In her next match, she fought Yuka Tsuji. If you are unfamiliar, Tsuji is a legend on the Japanese MMA scene. Arguably the biggest star during Smackgirl, Tsuji defeated a who's who of talent, amassing a record of 23-2, with 16 submissions and 2 ko's, before the fight with Ayaka. In addition to her fighting skill, Tsuji was a widely recognized figurehead of women in MMA in Japan. Tsuji had headlined the Inoki Bom-Bay-Ye 2003 event in front of over 43,000 people and on Japanese TV. Equally impressive, is that she headlined the event over names like Alistair Overeem, Fedor, Josh Barnett, Semmy Schilt, Alexander Emelianenko, Lyoto Machida and Rich Franklin. Even more, Ayaka was going to fight Tsuji in her hometown of Osaka. She trained very hard for this fight, thinking only about winning.

The support for Tsuji was incredible, but it didn't phase Ayaka. In her mind, she's never the hometown favorite, so it didn't bother her.

Ayaka destroyed Tsuji. She submitted her with a double-wrist lock in the first round. Afterwards, a teary eyed Ayaka hugged her mentor Megumi. When asked about it, she remembers that she had never fought a fighter that was on the level of Tsuji before and that even though she didn't think it would affect her, she was so happy that she couldn't help but cry when she won. While Tsuji may have been the hometown favorite, people climbed into the ring to be with Ayaka. Her seniors and juniors from college had traveled from all over Japan to see the fight. Afterwards, they all took a picture together in the ring. Gong magazine later dubbed the double-wrist lock that she won with, the "Hama-Lock". A play on one of the submission's names and her name. The name closely resembled Megumi's "Megu-Lock". In many ways, Ayaka's defeat of Tsuji announced the arrival of a new generation.

The "Hama-Lock"

Invicta FC

Two months after the biggest win of her career, Ayaka got the chance to do something she never thought she would, fight abroad. The promotion was Invicta and it was their second event. Ayaka was looking forward to testing herself abroad. Some fighters might have been nervous, but Ayaka wasn't. In what is a common characteristic in all of her fights, Ayaka took the fight for what it was, excited, not nervous. An opportunity to challenge herself. And this fight did present a lot of challenges. Ayaka had never fought under the unified rules before, never fought in a cage before, and still did not consider herself a world level fighter.

In the fight, Ayaka fought Lacey Schuckman. Thinking back on the fight, Lacey's physical strength sticks out the most to her. At the time, Ayaka, like Megumi, didn't cut weight. Instead she walked around at roughly 52kg (115). Nevertheless, Ayaka was able to take Lacey down numerous times throughout the fight and in the end, won via a hard fought submission. She had been in positions where she could have thrown elbows, but she was still getting used to the new rules, elbows still felt unnatural. Even though she won, Ayaka left the match feeling like she still had a lot to learn.

After defeating Emi Fujino in Japan, Ayaka's next fight in Invicta was supposed to be against Carla Esparza for the Invicta 115 title, but Carla had to withdraw because of an injury. As a result, Ayaka was slated to face Claudia Gadelha. This fight would be an important moment in Ayaka's career. She was looking forward to fighting a larger opponent, as she thought it would be a good test for future fights against larger non-Japanese fighters. A week before the fight it was in jeopardy. A week before the fight, Ayaka was informed that she would not be allowed to tape her knees. Ayaka needed to tape her knees but didn't feel like she could pull out for that reason. She had trained really hard, but she knew the tape would be a problem. Ayaka lost the fight via TKO in the 3rd round. Thinking back on the fight, Ayaka remembers how strong Claudia was, she couldn't do anything.

Surgery and Return to Japan

A month after her fight with Claudia, Ayaka had surgery to fix her knees. She didn't want to tape her legs anymore. The surgery would put her out of commission for a little more than a year, making the future uncertain. A lot of changes had occurred during her rehabilitation. Megumi Fujii had retired and moved to the other side of the country, Hitomi Akano and Rina Tomita had also retired. When Megumi left, other women also stopped coming to the gym, 9 in total. Ayaka felt lonely in the gym, being one of the only women left. Outside of the gym changes, Jewels had been absorbed into Deep becoming Deep Jewels, leaving Ayaka's future in Japan uncertain. She also didn't know what division she wanted to fight in. She had never tried to make 105 before, but it was an option. When I spoke to her during her rehabilitation, she didn't know who she wanted to fight for or at what weight, but she wanted to fight in Japan.

Even though she said that she wanted her next fight to be in Japan, she was originally slated to make her return fight on the Invicta FC 9 card, against Herica Tiburcio, but visa issues led to Herica not being able to compete, so the match was scrapped. Her return would be for Deep Jewels, against fellow Invicta and Jewels veteran Sugirock. Interestingly, Ayaka was uncharacteristically nervous, as she was coming off of the surgery, she would not be taping her knees, and she was dropping down to 48kg(105), something she had never done before.

Even though she hadn't fought for a year, Ayaka looked very good in her atomweight debut, dropping Sugirock with strikes and tko'ing her in the first round. While Ayaka had looked good at 115, she seemed to have more power at 105.

Ayaka drops Sugirock with punches
Photo courtesy of Lady Go!

Next, she fought again in Japan, this time against V.V. Mei. V.V. Mei had also been testing herself abroad and had previously fought in an action packed war against Megumi. This fight was part of a Deep New Year's Eve event at Saitama Super Arena. The event had severally highly promoted womens' fights on the card, showing that like in the U.S., things were changing in Japan. Women were becoming more and more part of mainstream MMA and Ayaka was in the top women's fight on the card. She won a fairly dominant decision and in doing so, was named the 2014 Atomweight of the Year.

The Championship

While Ayaka was looking very strong at 105 in Japan, she wanted to fight in America, she wanted to make another run for the Invicta title, this time at 105. Ayaka had been previously slated to fight Herica Tibrucio, but the fight didn't come to fruition. In the meantime, Herica had become the Invicta FC 105 champion. The fight was rescheduled, this time for the title. Because it was for the title, the fight felt special to Ayaka and as a result, she felt a little nervous before the fight, but she was excited.

In what she describes as a troubling trend in her Invicta title fights, Ayaka had a rough first round against Herica. Herica hit her with a hard body shot and seemed to have a deep choke locked in when the round ended. In the following rounds, Ayaka repeatedly took Herica down, who while active on the bottom, was resigned to acting defensively. In the end, Ayaka won a 2-1 split decision to become the champion. To be honest, she was surprised. She thought she had done enough to win a clear decision. She doesn't speak English so didn't know what was going on and was worried when she heard that it was a split decision.

Courtesy of All Elbows

Even though though she was the champ, it didn't set in immediately. It didn't really set in till afterwards, when she was eating with her friends. People had traveled from all over to watch Ayaka fight for the title. The head of Inspirit, a long time sponsor of hers, Shooto Legend Rumina Sato, and friends from around America came to watch the fight and to celebrate afterwards. In winning the title, Ayaka had become the first Japanese fighter to win an American title and it was a big deal. Japanese fighters like Tatsuya Kawajiri were congratulating her on Twitter, she graced the cover of magazines, and an event was planned to celebrate her victory.

An advertisement for the event. Amongst those who showed up were:
Kenji Osawa, Funaki, the Pancrase CEO, the Deep head, and the former Jewels head.

Ayaka was once again named the atomweight of the year, in 2015.

Ayaka wouldn't fight again for almost another year, this time against Amber Brown. Amber came to a lot of people's attention when she fought Emi Fujino and Kikuya Ishikawa in Japan. Afterwards, she had been signed to Invicta, where she won three fights in a row to earn this title fight. A physical fighter known for her endurance, Amber looked to be a solid challenge for Ayaka. The fight was an amazing fight. The fight went back and forth, but Ayaka was able to get Amber to reluctantly submit near the end of the third. Prior to the submission, Ayaka had transitioned from numerous arm locks as the two rolled around. In her corner, was a new face, Rena. While not especially popular outside of Japan, Rena is a big star in Japan. A multiple time Shoot Boxing champion, Rena made the transition to MMA and is now one of the faces of Rizin in Japan. It is a perfect match, training wise as Ayaka has a grappling background and Rena is a world-class striker. Hamasaki is usually in Rena's corner now when she fights. As mentioned above, there was a time period when a lot of the women left AACC, but now new talent was starting to come. Some of their attraction to the gym, has to be attributed to Ayaka.

Ayaka began gracing more and more Japanese magazines on a regular basis.

Ayaka didn't wait long to step back in the cage again, this time against Jihn Yu Frey, who had defeated Herica Tiburcio in her last fight. Frey's power had been on display in the fight, where she dropped Herica with a punch near the end of a round. Frey's power was evident in the first round of the fight with Ayaka. As Ayaka jokes, she's had some bad first rounds in her title defenses, but Ayaka started to fight her way back. Unfortunately the fight was marred with controversy. Ayaka connected with a very solid punch that cut Frey above the eye. To some, the punch appeared to have badly phased Frey, but we will never know. The ref stopped the fight due to the cut, leaving a sour taste in everyone's mouth, the fans, the corners, the media, Ayaka, and Frey.

Before the Amber fight, Rena had started training with Ayaka. After the Frey fight, Emi Fujino and Ayaka Miura started coming to train with Ayaka. People wanted to train with the champion. Increasing opportunities for women, opened up training partners for these women. A couple years before, these women couldn't train together because it was very likely they would have to fight each other. Not anymore. Ayaka fights for Invicta, Rena fights for Rizin, Emi fights for Road FC, Miura fights for Pancrase, and V.V. Mei fights for One Championship, meaning that all of these former rivals can now train together. Iron sharpens iron, and by these top women now being able to train together, their own skills will only rise.

Ayaka was once again the atomweight of the year, in 2016.

The UFC Dream

In her last fight, Ayaka once again tried to make a run at 115 in Invicta, this time against the former champ Souza. When asked why, the answer is simple, she wants to fight in the UFC. For her, as a mma fighter, UFC is the dream. One must imagine that it is somewhat frustrating for her to see past opponents and past Invicta 105ers get shots in the UFC, but for her, the call has yet to come. She may have lost, but do not count Ayaka out. She came back better than ever after her first defeat and one should expect her to come back even better after this loss. Once she is healed up, we should expect to see the easy going, motorcycle riding, cat loving, nerves of steel Ayaka back to her winning ways.