On Saturday afternoon, Deep Jewels 36 went down at the New Pier Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Despite losing three fights, the promotion delivered one of their more star packed cards in awhile. At Flyweight, the tournament kicked off with favorites Shizuka Sugiyama and Rin Nakai both getting wins and advancing to the next round, but their performances were not flawless. Both Te-a and Kuriyama were in attendance and joined Nakai and Sugiyama in the cage afterwards. The four will compete in the semi-finals/finals at the next show on May 8th at the famed Korakuen Hall. At Super Atomweight, Hime upset the champion Saori Oshima in a non-title bout and Moeri Suda and Miki Motono both emerged as potential stars. With Sakakibara’s recent comments about the possibility of a women’s Super Atomweight tournament this year, it seems that may be more than a mere possibility with 5 bouts scheduled for this card and him in attendance.
Nakai tests her striking before finishing Fujita
In her first bout since 2019, Rin Nakai defeated the Karateka Shoko Fujita via TKO at 4:38 of the 2nd round. In the opening round, Nakai chose to keep the fight standing and exchanged with Fujita, where she landed some thumping body punches that actually knocked Fujita’s mouthpiece out. Near the end of the round, she got Fujita down against the cage and worked for a guillotine choke before time expired. In the 2nd round, Nakai started to look more uncomfortable on her feet as she ate more and more shots from Fujita. As Fujita started to open up more, Nakai took her down and was all over her. She easily transitioned to the mount and landed some shots but Fujita was able to survive for awhile until Nakai really opened up and got the TKO. Afterwards, when speaking to the press about the fight, Nakai stated that “the match experience was valuable and I chose to strike in the beginning for practice. If my strategy had been to take her down in the beginning, I would have done that.”
While Nakai did find some success striking early on and was dominant on the ground, when Fujita really started opening up in the 2nd round, she started to look out of her comfort zone. At only 155cm (5’1), striking has never been her strong suit, but she does have power in her punches and they did seem to be bother Fujita. As a Karateka, Fujita probably had the best striking, at least on paper, going into this tournament, so it will be interesting to see what approach Nakai takes in the semi-finals and finals. Will she look to get more experience striking or will she play it safe and stick to her grappling. On a final note, it is worth noting that Nakai generated a lot of attention, as expected, and there was more media in attendance than normal.
Sugiyama lays on the GNP before almost getting caught
In her first fight in almost a year, Shizuka Sugiyama narrowly defeated Nirvana via Split-Decision. Here are some things to keep in mind, Deep Jewels scores per round, with judges being able to score a round a draw. In this tournament, each match has five judges instead of the normal three and they each are required to pick a winner, even if they scored the bout a draw. For 9 out of the 10 minutes of this fight, Sugiyama was all over Nirvana. She was able to get her to mat several times and once there, she thew hard punches at every opportunity. However, this aggressiveness almost ended up costing her the fight, as the always game Nirvana managed to throw up an armbar in the last minute and catch Sugiyama off guard. When this happened, the crowd went nuts and most people were sitting on the edges of their seats. The referee asked Sugiyama if she wanted to continue and she did, eventually getting her hands clasped and finally escaping at the end.
This armbar attempt was huge for Nirvana because under Deep Jewels’ rules, effective striking and grappling is given the highest judging priority, with judges considering, in order of importance, its (1) impact, (2) dominance, and (3) duration. While Sugiyama was clearly more dominant with her striking and grappling for most of the fight, Nirvana did look like she may have been closest to finishing it. This is reflected in the judging where two of the judges ruled the fight a draw and chose Nirvana as the winner, opposed to two of the judges who had Sugiyama winning with another ruling it a draw and choosing her as well.
Afterwards, when speaking to the media, Sugiyama expressed her displeasure with her performance and that it kind of felt like a loss. She also added that the armbar was never really tight and that she didn’t have any pain in her arm. She has made it clear that she wants to face Rin Nakai, so it will be interesting to see what happens at the next match drawing. Will Sugiyama want to face Nakai in the finals or would she rather face her in the semi-finals? Having already defeated Aoi Kuriyama by submission, Sugiyama remains one of the favorites to win this tournament.
Moeri Suda wants Oshima next
In about a year’s time, the 17 year old Moeri Suda has made quite the turn-around. Starting her career at 0-2, the sophmore in high school has now rattled off five wins in a row, with three of them coming by armbar. This last win over Hikaru Aono is clearly the biggest of her career. At 28 years old Aono is a decorated wrestler who participated in the Atomweight tournament and fought for the Atomweight belt two times. If Suda was nervous, she didn’t let it show as she started going for submissions as soon as the fight hit the ground, throwing up armbar after armbar until one landed that Aono wasn’t able to escape from. Afterwards, she thanked her father for training with her and asked for a title fight with Oshima.
In the post-fight press conference, Deep Jewels’ CEO Saeki spoke in glowing terms about Suda so we should expect to see big things from her in the future. If the past is any indicator, she is exactly the type of fighter that Rizin is interested in. Kanna Asakura, Sakura, and Eru Takebayashi all made their Rizin debuts as high school students, so it would not be a surprise if Suda follows this route. She is currently training in Osaka at Scorpion Gym but it looks like she spars with Hanako Sawa, which may explain why she wasn’t intimidated by Aono’s wrestling. With her strong Jiu-Jitsu background it will be interesting to see what happens if she does fight Oshima next. Oshima’s own Judo style focuses on ground fighting so it could be an action packed grappling battle.
Motono crashes into Super Atomweight
After defeating Hime at Deep Jewels 35 last December, Saeki mentioned in the press conference that Motono needed to move down to Super Atomweight. Unfortunately, Deep Jewels doesn’t have the fighters on their roster to support that division. With Rizin providing a big stage opportunity for Atomweights, most of their fighters that can, have dropped down and as a result, the division has dried up. From the look of it, not only does Motono look to have recovered from her knee injury, she also seems to have made Atomweight without any issue. She took a measured approach with her striking, not allowing Nisse the chance to brawl. When she landed, she landed hard and absolutely nailed Nisse with a beautifully executed Judo throw before transitioning to an armbar and getting the submission victory in the opening round.
With Rizin looking to potentially hold a Super Atomweight tournament, Motono has to be on the short list of Deep Jewels’ fighters they may be interested in. At 27 years old she is the same age as Oshima and comes from an equally impressive Judo background. Speaking of Oshima, Motono is four inches taller and coming down from Strawweight so she looks to also have good power for the division. She and Suda were the two most impressive Super Atomweights on Saturday and both would make great additions to the Rizin roster.
Hime defeats over-aggressive Oshima
In the biggest upset of the night, the former basketball player Hime defeated the Deep Jewels Atomweight Champion Saori Oshima. Going into the fight, Hime had a significant height advantage and while she doesn’t have a martial arts background, she is obviously athletic and moves well. Oshima, clearly wasn’t interested in striking and rushed forward towards Hime in an attempt to grapple. Unfortunately for her, Hime blasted her with strikes and moved away, knocking Oshima off balance several times, and even causing her to fall to a knee on occasion. Eventually, with great effort, Oshima was able to get Hime down and looked to set up an armbar but Hime was able to power out of it. In the second and final round, Oshima looked to tire as she desperately tried to grapple, while Hime did her best bull fighter impression. Oshima did eventually get Hime down again, but it was too late to get a submission.
One has to wonder what would have happened if Oshima had been more patient and set up her takedown attempts instead of barging forward. When she was able to grapple, she did well and got close to finishing the fight. It also sounds like she may have had COVID a couple weeks ago, so that might have played a factor. Nevertheless, Hime has made great strides in her still young career. She is tall and athletic for the division so it will be interesting to see how she does. A match up with Si Woo Park, a fellow physical striker could be interesting. While she did defeat the current champion, it is hard to say she should be next in line for the title considering Suda has now won five in a row and Motono, who is now also a Super Atomweight, just recently defeated her.
Entrance Music
- Sadae Numata: El Amante
- Yuko Kiryu: Winners High
- Moeri Suda: Dun Dun
- Hikaru Aono: Gurenge
- Nisse: Dynamic Ryukyu
- Miki Motono: Bad Boy
- Hime: Ikite
- Saori Oshima: Mela!
- Nirvana: Kasumiyuuku Sora Senishite
- Shizuka Sugiyama: Hashire!
- Shoko Fujita: Throw ya fist
- Rin Nakai: Mi Strong Woman
Results
- Rin Nakai defeated Shoko Fujita via TKO (GNP) at 4:38 of RD 2
- Shizuka Sugiyama defeated Nirvana via SD (18-18 Must N; 19-19 Must N; 19-19 Must S; 19-18 S; 20-17 S)
- Hime defeated Saori Oshima via UD (20-18 x 2; 20-17)
- Miki Motono defeated Nisse via Submission (Armbar) at 4:18 of RD 1
- Moeri Suda defeated Hikaru Aono via Submission (Armbar) at 3:36 of RD 1
- Yuko Kiryu defeated Sadae Numata via SD
- Mizuki Furuse defeated Reina Kobayashi via Submission (RNC) at 2:11 of RD 1
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