Coming off of her first MMA win on foreign soil, we had a chance to talk with Kana Watanabe while she was quarantining upon her return to Japan. Due to the length of the conversation, it will be broken down into two separate articles. In this segment, we talked to the still undefeated Kana about quarantine, her experience fighting abroad, her crowdfunding campaign, and her last fight. In part II we discussed Miki Motono, Seika Izawa, Rizin, Youtube, and what’s next. We at Sogo-Kaku would like to thank Kana for taking the time to speak to us. (The cover photo is courtesy of Akihito Tatematsu)
You can follow Kana on Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.
CJ: How’s quarantine going?
Kana: I’m … really free.
CJ: Are you at a hotel?
Kana: No, I’m at home. I can only go outside to go shopping for things like food.
CJ: Did I see on your Twitter that you’ve been using Uber Eats alot?
Kana: That’s right! During this quarantine, its the first time I’ve used Uber Eats.
CJ: What have you been ordering?
Kana: Sundubu (Korean Spicy Tofu Stew), Korean food. Spicy food. Lots of meats.
CJ: What was it like fighting abroad for the first time in your MMA career?
Kana: It wasn’t really that different from fighting in Japan. It was like it was just another fight. However, I had a hard time cutting weight.
CJ: Is that because of having to fly there and the travel?
Kana: There is the flight, but when I got to the hotel there were a lot of COVID-19 restrictions. Until I tested negative, I wasn’t allowed to leave my room. Because of this I wasn’t able to work out. In Japan, all of the hotel rooms have bathtubs, but in this hotel room there wasn’t a bathtub.
CJ: That sounds pretty difficult.
Kana: Yeah, it made my weight cut difficult. But there was a sauna.
CJ: When you cut weight, do you normally take a bath with epson salts?
Kana: I’ve only used salts once. I don’t really use that. But this was my most difficult weight cut.
CJ: Besides the weight cut, did COVID-19 make it difficult to travel and fight abroad?
Kana: Not really. It was fun.
CJ: That’s good! Was it your first trip to America?
Kana: I’ve been there before on vacation. A while back, during my Judo days, I competed all over the world.
CJ: Did that experience make this last fight easier?
Kana: Yeah, I think so.
CJ: I noticed something interesting before the fight. It looks like you did a crowdfunding campaign. I think I saw that those that donated got access to exclusive videos and things like that.
Kana: There was really a lot of people who reached out to support me. It was really good.
CJ: Does it make you want to start a fan club or something like that?
Kana: I don’t think it will get to the level of being a fan club but I would like to be able to give something back to my supporters. Something like signed gloves and things like that.
CJ: The exclusive videos looked pretty interesting.
Kana: Yes! We made three parts. My coach made those.
CJ: Speaking of the fight, how was it?
Kana: It was a really tough fight. I hadn’t fought for about a year and three months so I didn’t really have a good sense in the beginning. I’d say for the first half of the fight it was like I couldn’t get into the fight properly. I got kind of over excited and panicked. However I was gradually able to get into it and make it a fight.
CJ: Were you nervous before the fight?
Kana: I wasn’t nervous at all.
CJ: After the fight, you were critical of your striking. Can you talk about your striking and training?
Kana: I go to kickboxing practice and also work on it during MMA practice. In practice, I’m able to do it pretty well. During the fight, I wasn’t able to perform like I do in training. During the fight, the distance was giving me problems. I wasn’t able to adjust well.
CJ: Because of your Judo background, do you find striking to be the most difficult part of your training?
Kana: Yeah, thats true, it is diffucult.
CJ: It seems like you have good power though, you knocked out Sugiyama and knocked your coach down with a body punch in training.
Kana: (laughter) Yes, I have power. My offense has gotten a lot better, it is my defense that I need to work on.
CJ: After the fight, it looked like a lot of Japanese people were watching your fight and commenting on it.
Kana: It made me really happy. The people I train with, friends, acquaintances, friends of friends, friends of my family, they were all supporting me and a lot of them reached out to me. It was really surprising. Especially since we didn’t know if people would be able to watch the fight in Japan.
CJ: I heard that Bellator had so many Japanese comments during the live stream that they asked Shingo from Rizin to help out.
Kana: That makes me happy.
CJ: I also heard that a famous comedian congratulated you?
Kana: It made me happy. The fact that he knows who I am, he must be a real hardcore MMA fan. (laughter) Horiguchi, Tenshin, and Rena are all famous, so if he knows who I am he must really be a fan (laughter). It made me happy.
CJ: Speaking of entertainers, I read that you were on Sasuke (Ninja Warrior).
Kana: Yes. I was on the female version, Kunoichi. I made it pretty far. I was only 1 away from the finals. I made it to the end of the third stage.
CJ: I see. That is pretty impressive, most other fighters that go on fail almost immediately. Did you enjoy it?
Kana: It was really a lot of fun. I’d like to do it again. I have a lot of friends there.
CJ: That makes sense, you’ve said before that your hobby is training. Speaking of which, you used to train with Syuri Kondo quite a bit?
Kana: We used to train together at the same gym.
CJ: Did you ever train MMA together?
Kana: No, we only did physical training.
CJ: She’s fought for the UFC and abroad, did you guys ever talk about fighting abroad?
Kana: Yes, we talked about jet lag. She fought in Chile once, it was really far and hard on her. When I decided to fight for Bellator and signed my contract, Syuri had already started pro-wrestling again so I haven’t seen in her awhile. I’d like to see her but it is difficult now that she is back pro-wrestling.
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