This is the follow up and final part of our interview with Rizin veteran and current Bellator fighter Kana Watanabe. In Part 1, we discussed her 2 week quarantine, her experience fighting abroad, her crowdfunding campaign, and her most recent fight. In this segment, we talk about her time in Judo, Miki Motono, Seika Izawa, Rizin, Youtube, and what’s next. We would once again like to thank Kana for taking the time to speak with us. At the time of this interview Kana was ranked 4th in Bellator, she is now ranked 3rd(Once again, the cover photo is courtesy of Akihito Tatematsu)
You can follow Kana on Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.
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CJ: Speaking of people that you know, you and Miki Motono both went to Tokai University for Judo. Did you ever train together?
Kana: We’ve never trained MMA, but we have practiced Judo together many times.
CJ: I know you are older but were you at school during the same time?
Kana: No, no, I got to train with her because I kept doing Judo after I graduated. I would go to Tokai to train a lot. I also trained with Saori Oshima (Deep Microweight Champion) quite a bit. I trained with them both. Miki is a strong Judoka.
CJ: I know you train at Fighter’s Flow, but I see you training with some of the people at Strapple quite often.
Kana: I am not a member there, but we all train together about twice a week.
CJ: Have you ever trained with Seika Izawa there?
Kana: Yes, I have.
CJ: Having trained with both Seika and Miki, what are your thoughts on their upcoming title match?
Kana: How will it go…they’ve fought before…Izawa won…and I don’t know what kind of strategy Motono will use…if it is anything like the first fight, I think Izawa will win again. She is really good on the ground, I think she might be a better grappler.
CJ: How is her Judo?
Kana: Her Judo is strong but she’s also a strong wrestler. She has a good tackle and some good Judo as well.
CJ: Speaking of Strapple, what was it like having Shooto give you a shoutout after his match?
Kana: Yes (laughter). It made me really happy. It was during my weight cut, I heard it when I was on the airbike (laughter). I was having a really hard time on it. I was watching his match on my Ipad. When he said that those things it motivated me to train harder.
CJ: A lot of people thought his speech was cute.
Kana: Right? He wasn’t really smooth on the mic (laughter). He was cute, his voice is high pitched and he was with his girlfriend.
CJ: Speaking of him, any predictions for the upcoming Rizin tournament?
Kana: It is really difficult…it is difficult…there are a lot of fighters so it makes it difficult to pick, but a lot of people are saying that Inoue will win, they are saying he is strong and skilled.
CJ: Back to you, outside of MMA, you seem to be getting popular on Youtube.
Kana: (laughter) Not at all.
CJ: You do a lot of collaborations. Like the maid video.
Kana: That was Panchan’s idea.
CJ: Which video of yours has been the most popular?
Kana: The maid ones with Panchan… and the ones with Dounmae Kawabata, a judoka that I’ve collaborated with. These collaborations come about when people reach out to me or my coach.
CJ: I heard that you had the most fun making the video where you ate a lot of donuts?
Kana: (laughter) I ate a lot, I ate 17 donuts. I’d like to make another eating video with something like Yakiniku.
CJ: Is Yakiniku your favorite?
Kana: Yes, that’s right. I like meat. I like Kalbi (short ribs), and Horomone (intestine). I also eat a lot of Korean food.
CJ: So when do you think you would like to fight again?
Kana: Probably sometime in the summer.
CJ: Is there anyone that you would like to fight?
Kana: I just want to fight someone who is ranked higher than me, I want to fight the champion, so I want to keep fighting people ranked above me so I can eventually fight the champion.
CJ: Did you watch the fight between Liz and Vanessa?
Kana: Yes, I did. They both are all-rounders. They both seemed skilled in all aspects of MMA. Liz is really good at jiu-jitsu so I wanted to see her on the ground but the match didn’t really go there. I wanted to see more of the fight on the ground.
CJ: Don’t you think that you and Liz are probably the most muscular fighters in your division in Bellator?
Kana: (laughter) That is probably right. But non-Japanese fighters are a lot bigger than Japanese fighters. It was surprising how much bigger they are.
CJ: So above you in the rankings is the Champ, Ilima, Liz, and another person. They all seem pretty good at grappling.
Kana: That’s a good point. But I like grappling and I am good at grappling, so I want to fight other good grapplers.
CJ: With that in mind, which of them seems the most interesting to fight?
Kana: Ilima-lei. It would be interesting, she is really good at submitting people and has won a lot fights and had a lot of finished. I’m interested in fighting her.
CJ: Now that you’ve had a couple fights in Bellator have you noticed any differences between them and Rizin?
Kana: Probably the ring and the cage is the biggest different. Rizin doesn’t have the cage. The environment is also different. For example, in Bellator there is a set time for when your match starts. The start time is already decided. They were like “this is what time your fight is going to start” and I thought it kind of made things easier for me. There wasn’t a huge difference or anything. It didn’t really bother me. There wasn’t an audience so I can’t really tell how they would be different from a Japanese audience. It was really quiet. It was the first time I’ve ever fought without an audience. It was kind of strange how quiet it was. It was really quiet when I made my entrance to the cage too. However, it was really easy to hear my coaches.
CJ: During your fight, I saw people posting GIFs of you rolling up the fry pan in Rizin.
Kana: (laughter) Ah, the one where I bend the fry pan?
CJ: How did you know you could do that?
Kana: Rizin told me that they wanted me to bend a fry pan. (laughter). Rizin gave me the fry pan so I really only had once shot at trying to bend it.
CJ: Do you want to do something like that at Bellator?
Kana: I want to but I need to think about what kind of fry pan is best. I think it would be difficult if it was a real strong fry pan. I need to ask Rizin about the fry pan…
CJ: Finally, has the pandemic impacted your training at all?
Kana: I am back to training like I was before. But when it first started I wasn’t able to really train that much. It isn’t different now though.
CJ: Thank you for you time.
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