Ham Seo Hee (12-5) will be facing off against fellow Jewels veteran Shino Vanhoose (3-2) this Sunday on April 6th.
Ham Seo Hee is coming into this match as the Deep Jewels Atomweight Champion and is riding a three fight win streak.While her 12-5 record is impressive, I would argue that it is even more impressive when one looks at the names. Her five losses were to Miku Matsumoto (23-4), Yuka Tsuji (24-3), Megumi Fujii (26-3) and Ayaka Hamasaki (9-1). She is also undefeated at 105 holding a 3-0 record in the division. One can also expect her to come into this fight highly motivated as this will be her first MMA fight in her home country.
Shino VanHoose is a definite prospect and hasn't fought since 2012. So there are questions going into the fight. She is back in the States, having previously trained in Japan, so it is impossible to tell what she has improved in and how her style has evolved. Having had seen her fight before, I can say that she used to be predominately a grappler but I don't know what she is like now. What I do know is that she has nothing to lose in this fight and everything to gain.
Some of the matches for Deep Jewels 4, which takes place on 5/18, have been announced. The main event will likely be a championship match between Shizuka Sugiyama (11-3) and Takayo Hashi (14-4), with the victor becoming the inaugural champion for Deep Jewels. Also on the card is the return of Saori Ishioka (12-7). She will be dropping weight, like many fighters in Asia right now, to 105 and will face off against Satomi Takano (3-3). Yuko Kawabata (0-5) will face Naomi Taniyama (0-2).
As always bouts will be added to the card in the preceding weeks.
The Queen of Pancrasse, Rin Nakai (15-0-1) will be competing on the Pancrase 258 card on 5/11. This is an important card. Pancrase will be debuting a 10 sided cage, called the Decagon that they will use in future events. The fights will also be fought under Unified Rules. Unless I am mistaken, this will be the first time that Nakai has ever competed under Unified Rules and will be her first time back in the cage since her Valkyrie days. As a short and powerful fighter who likes to use her judo in the clinch, one would think that the transition to the cage could be beneficial.
I will be sure to write more about the upcoming event as information is released.
The card will also feature Bantamweight King of Pancrase Shintaro Ishiwatari.
On March 29th, Japanese Veteran Mei Yamaguchi (11-6-1) will be making her AtomWeight debut again Gina Iniong (2-1).
2013-14 saw a lot of fighters retire in Japan. The women's divisions and the promotion Deep Jewels were especially effected. However there are still several very good fighters in Japan. One of these fighters is Mei Yamaguchi. Mei has fought stiff competition throughout her entire career and emerged with a respectable record. Yet, Mei has also competed for most of her career against larger and stronger opponents. Standing at 5ft, she was one of the shorter women in the 115lb division. Now that she is dropping to 105, I expect that she will be fighting on a physically more level playing field. I for one am all for the cut to 105. The 115lb division in Asia dried up over night and there is no one left for her to fight in the division. In addition, with Ham Seo Hee having successfully dropped and Ayaka Hamasaki following suit it only makes sense. Coming off of a razor-thin loss in her last fight, one can expect that Mei will be very motivated to get back into the win column and to make her 105 debut a successful one.
Gina Iniong will be coming into the fight with a 2-1 record and will also be the hometown favorite. In her two victories she has finished both of her opponents in the first round. Iniong has to be incredibly motivated going into this fight. A chance to fight against a well known veteran is what most rising fighters hope for. A victory for Iniong will catapult her career much like Amber Brown's victory over Ishikawa. From what I gain, it looks like Gina comes from a Muay Thai and striking background. She looks to be very aggressive with her punches and likes to bully her opponents around the cage.
Both of these fighters have pleasing styles to watch and it should be a good fight.
"V.V" Mei Yamaguchi will be making her second appearance for PXC on March 16th. An opponent has yet to be named but the fight will be taking place in the Philippines and she stated that her opponent will be a local. The fight will be at 48KG/105LB. Mei stated that she will be fighting at that weight from now on.
Continuing on with a stream of retirements, Jewels poster girl Mika Nagano will be retiring at Deep Jewels 3. She will be taking part in an exhibition match followed by a retirement ceremony. This comes as a big loss to Deep Jewels and WMMA in Japan. Nagano was one of the promotions bigger draws and did quite a bit of promotional work. The fighter who was originally know for her wrestling and armbar finishes, has shown evolution in her recent fights. Her striking and ground and pound looked much improved recently. It is yet to be known why she is retiring and if she will continue with her pro wrestling.
