Deep Jewels 39 Preview -

This Wednesday, a national holiday in Japan, Deep Jewels 39 will go down in the afternoon with Deep Tokyo Impact following that night. Both are taking place at New Pier Hall, a nice venue surrounded by wedding venues and next to a port. In the main event, Bantamweight Champion Yoko Higashi will take on Diamond the Rose Rocket from Thailand. Elsewhere on the card, Miki Motono will face Moeri Suda, Micco Nirvana will face Nøri, and Mika Nagano is set to return to action.

Miki and Yoko return from the U.S, set to compete

Recently, both Miki Motono and Yoko Higashi traveled to the U.S. in order to train. Miki went as part of Abema’s new series and Yoko went on her own, with her son. While there, they both trained at Syndicate in Vegas, where Miki got to spar with UFC fighters like Angela Hill and Cynthia Calvillo. Motono, in my opinion, is on the cusp of being recognized as a world-class fighter and a win over Suda would be a huge statement, at least on the Japanese scene and could easily see her called up to Rizin in the near future, where Oshima has already publicly appealed for her to compete. Motono for her part, wants to compete in the UFC and a dominant win here will certainly help make that happen. However, in order to compete for the UFC, she likely will need to move back up to 52kg, which is a fairly empty division in Japan at the moment.

Both Motono and Higashi come from high level judo backgrounds and both are currently riding win streaks. Motono for her part, has looked more dominant, with one-sided wins over Hime and Nisse. She will also be facing a tougher opponent in Moeri Suda, who has shown she can follow a game plan that eliminates her opponent’s strengths. Suda’s also made big leaps in skill between her fights and looks to be getting better and better, especially off her back.

Miki Motono submits Nisse; courtesy of Akihito Tatematsu

Nirvana welcomes Nøri back to Deep Jewels

Recently, Deep Jewels and Pancrase seem to have been sharing fighters, like when Yoko Higashi came over from Pancrase to face King Reina and when Aoi Kuriyama went over to face Nøri. This exchange looks to continue as Nøri returns to Deep Jewels for the first time since 2016, in order to challenge AACC’s Nirvana.

Micco Nirvana, Courtesy of Akihito Tatematsu

Originally part of Team Date, Nøri is now part of Team Pravajra, a team that includes the undefeated Queen of Pancrase, Karen. Like most members of Team Date, Nøri has competed in everything combat related, from pro-wrestling to Shoot Boxing, to MMA. Throughout all these rulesets she’s faced the likes of Ai Takahashi (Shoot Boxing Champion), Emi Fujino (Pancrase Champion), Mizuki Inoue (UFC), Heqin Lin (One), Tabatha Ricci (UFC), and Raika Emiko (Boxing Champion). Nøri is coming off of a split-decision draw with Aoi Kuriyama in July, where she fought back from a devastating first round, where she was dropped several times, to even the scores. With this fight, the 24 year old will look to use her kicking oriented style to get back to her winning ways.

Across from her will be Nirvana, who hasn’t fought since March when she tried to submit Shizuka Sugiyama with an armbar in the Flyweight Tournament. At 3-2, the Ibaraki native has struggled with the elite fighters at Flyweight, but she has picked up solid wins against Arami and Kate Lotus. It is also worth noting that she also trains at Imanari Jiu-Jitsu, so there is always the possibility that she might drop for a heel hook.

Nøri lands a kick, courtesy of Akihito Tatematsu

Mika Nagano takes on softball MVP

After initially retiring in 2013 and returning for a couple brief stints, Mika is now set to fight for the third time this year, the most she’s fought in a year since 2018. She’s in a position to go 3-0, with three finishes, if she gets the finish on Wednesday. Across the cage from her will be Arisa Matsuda, a 27 year old former softball player, who played for the Kyoto Flora, before retiring in 2017 to pursue a career in MMA. In 2017, her softball contract came up for renewal, but the young player felt burnt out and had recently seen Ilima-Lei McFarland compete at Bellator. This fueled her decision not to re-sign with the Flora and to instead go to Hawaii and train at HMC and start preparing to make her pro-debut. She originally wanted to make her pro-debut in 2018, but life got in the way and she got married and had a kid. Now she trains at Blows in Osaka. She made her pro-debut earlier this year, defeating Chisato Wada by TKO in the first round.

Mika defeated Kate Lotus; photo courtesy of Akihito Tatematsu

Mana and Machi make pro-debuts

Two promising prospects, Mana and Machi are both set to make their pro-debuts this Wednesday, with Mana fighting at 54kg and Machi at 52kg. Mana hails from Okayama, like Megumi Fujii, and has trained with Rin Nakai in the past. She also went 1-0 as an amateur. Machi, is coming off of her sole loss as an amateur, where she struggled to deal with her opponent’s reach advantage. Across from the cage, will be Arami, a tough staple of Deep Jewels, who will clearly be Machi’s toughest test to date. However, a win could launch her up the rankings.