2022: Half-Year Review

With July just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to take a look back at the first half of the year. So far, between Rizin, Deep, Deep Jewels, Shooto, and Pancrase, there have been 40 women’s fights, four new champions have been crowned, and a second fighter has become a cross-promotional two-division champion. When compared to last year, where there were 87 fights, it looks like things could be on track for some similar results. However, with Rizin set to launch their Super Atomweight Tournament and Shooto going into over-drive, there are likely to be more fights in the 2nd half of the year than the 1st, meaning there could be more fights this year than last. Also, with the easing of travel restrictions, promotions will be able to bring in foreign talent to bolster their divisions, something that promotions like Pancrase and Rizin have historically relied on.

The Champions

As mentioned above, four new champions have been crowned this year, Rin Nakai, Seika Izawa, Yoko Higashi, and Karen Pravajra.

Who’s been active

• Rin Nakai, 3 Fights (3-0)
• Haruna Kato, 3 Fights (0-2-1)
• Yuko Kiryu, 2 Fights (2-0)
• Miku Nakamura, 2 Fights (2-0)
• Shizuka Sugiyama, 2 Fights (1-1)
• Saori Oshima, 2 Fights (1-1)
• Moeri Suda, 2 Fights (1-1)
• Momoka Hoshuyama, 2 Fights (1-1)
• Hisae Watanabe, 2 Fights (1-1)
• Yuki Ono, 2 Fights (0-1-1)
• Ayaka Miura, 2 Fights (0-2)

Rizin

So far this year, Rizin 35 has been the only event to feature any women’s bouts. On that card, Seika Izawa defeated Ayaka Hamasaki to become the new Super Atomweight Champion and Kanna Asakura defeated the Shooto Champion Satomi Takano. While the pandemic impacted all of the divisions and promotions in Japan, Rizin’s Super Atomweight Division was hit particularly hard. In 2021, there were only. 7 women’s fights, with only 1 fight not including Ayaka Hamasaki, Rena, or Kanna Asakura. In 2020, there were 6 fights. Conversely, in 2019, pre-pandemic, there were 15 fights. In 2018, there were 15 fights. In 2017, there were 19 fights. If these numbers indicate anything, it is that with foreigners able to compete in Japan and the upcoming Super Atomweight Tournament, the number of women’s fights in the 2nd half of the year should pick up considerably.

Without jumping ahead to the tournament, the biggest news so far this year is that Rizin has a new champion. Seika Izawa defeated Ayaka Hamasaki for a second time to earn the belt, effectively making her the face of the promotion’s only women’s division. Not only did she become the champion, but she also defeated a fighter who was once considered the best Atomweight on the planet, the only Japanese fighter to win a North American title, and one who will be remembered as an all-time great. By defeating Hamasaki, Izawa made a massive statement to the rest of the division and should be considered the favorite to win the upcoming tournament.

Deep / Deep Jewels

Deep and Deep Jewels have already had a big year when it comes to women’s MMA. Together the promotions put on 24 fights, with Deep Jewels crowning two new champions in the process. Saori Oshima also successfully defended her Atomweight title and is already talking about wanting to unify the Deep and Deep Jewels Microweight belts. Their fighters have also been called up to Rizin consistently, with Seika Izawa winning the title and three fighters competing on this weekend’s Okinawa card.

With their next event scheduled for September 11th, Deep Jewels will likely hold two more events this year and with their Strawweight Champion likely set to compete in the Rizin tournament for the rest of the year, Deep Jewels may decide to focus on Atomweight and Microweight, as these divisions are rich with talent. For them to focus on flyweight or bantamweight, they would need to bring in foreign talent and address the gorilla in the room, which is whether or not Rin Nakai plans to defend her belt. She seems solely focused on fighting for the UFC, so it remains to be seen if she will return.

Pancrase

Pancrase has only had one women’s fight so far this year, but they made it count with an exciting title match between Emi Fujino and Karen Pravajra. At just 18 years old, Pancrase has a young new champion, so it will be interesting to see how the promotion uses her going forward. Historically, the promotion likes to bring in foreign talent so that is a possibility. However, it is worth noting that no Pancrase Queen has ever successfully defended their title, including Rin Nakai, who fought in a series of non-title bouts after winning it. In fact, Emi Fujino was the first to attempt to defend it. Karen has an interesting Taekwondo-esque style and is part of an interesting team filled with charismatic fighters. In fact, her teammates are both scheduled to fight in July.

Shooto

As far as the women go, Shooto is having a phenomenal year. They’ve already had more fights this year than they did in all of 2021. At the core of this is their Infinity League, which includes Megumi Sugimoto, Hisae Watanabe, Chihiro Sawada, and the ever-present Miku Nakamura. Also, Satomi Takano defeated Mina Kurobe to become their new Super Atomweight Champion. There are a bunch of fights scheduled for July, so Shooto is on track to having a record-setting year and may even put on the most women’s matches in the region.

Popularity

Social Media

• 312,300 Kanna Asakura (T,I,Y)
• 297,800 Rena (T,I)
• 216,000 Itsuki Hirata (T,I)
• 107,300 Shizuka Sugiyama (T,I,Y)
• 76,080 Ayaka Hamasaki (T,I,Y)
• 71,070 Kana Watanabe (T,I,Y)
• 63,600 Ayaka Miura (T,I,Y)
• 56,700 Kate Lotus (T,I)
• 50,142 Miyuu Yamamoto (T,I,Y)
• 40,000 King Reina (T,I)
• 24,738 Mei Yamaguchi (T,I,Y)
• 22,583 Sumie Sakai (T,I)
• 21,913 Seika Izawa (T,I)
• 21,170 Momoka Yamazaki (T,I,Y)

Google Trends

Youtube Trends

Panchan Rina overtakes Kanna on Youtube

Historically, Kanna Asakura has consistently been the most popular female fighter turned youtuber. However, last year the kickboxer Panchan Rina made a strong push and is now generating more views and more searches on average. One reason for this may be that Kanna is creating less content than before. So far this year, she has released 12 videos on her channel. This is in stark contrast to 2021 where she released 44 videos and 2020 where she released 84 videos. Panchan Rina has released 20 videos so far this year, putting her on course to match her output of 44 from last year.

Who Fought