Yesterday, on a rainy Saturday in Tokyo, Japan, Deep Jewels 34 went down. As has become the norm during the pandemic, various precautions were taken. Those in attendance had to submit their name and phone number, have their temperature taken, and clean their hands with alcohol before entering. In addition, those in attendance were asked not to cheer or shout. Despite these restrictions, it looked like there wasn’t a limitation on how many could attend and the venue was filled. All-in-all, it seemed like pre-pandemic show. Yukari Nabe was doing guest commentary, new round girls were revealed, and a number of young fighters were working at the event, manning merchandise booths and ticket stands.
Up and comers on display
Deep Jewels has been developing a lot of fighters recently and that was on full display on Saturday. Going into the event, a majority of the fighters had less than three fights. Despite their inexperience, these fighters are creating fanbases, getting sponsorships, and are getting better.
In the first fight of the main card, retired soldier Te-a defeated the former “chubby idol” Pochan Z. Throughout the fight, Te-a came forward, throwing low kicks, calf kicks, and overhand rights. PochanZ had some occasional moments, like when she landed a hard haymaker and the last 10 seconds of the fight, but it wasn’t enough. As a young fighter, it is interesting that Te-a comes from AACC. Known primarily for producing grapplers, she chose to exclusively strike in this bout. Paired with her teammate, Otoha, this is an interesting development for the gym. When the fight was over, Te-a saluted the crowd. With power in her strikes, it will be interesting to see how she develops, since the 70kg division isn’t the deepest.
Deep Jewels was not exaggerating when they promoted Kyoka as the smallest fighter in their history. During the opening ceremony, her 146cm (4″8) frame stood in stark contrast to the other fighters. Her opponent, Aya Murakami, who is used to being the smaller fighter, took full advantage of being the bigger fighter for the first time in her career. She dominated the fight and submitted Kyoka in the first round. Known for her love of cosplay, Aya came to the ring dressed in full costume and as soon as the fight started, she came forward and aggressively threw inside leg kicks. She used this to get a hold of Kyoka and tripped her to the canvas. Once there, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt had a clear technical advantage, getting Kyoka in the crucifix position, then full mount, and then getting the armbar. As is the case with all the microweights, it will be interesting to see what Aya does next. Will she stay or bounce back and forth between atomweight.
In strawweight action, the 18 year old Eru Takebayashi used her striking to defeat Tomoko Inoue. Despite this being only her second fight, Tomoko Inoue seems to have generated some interest, evidenced by the fact that before the fight, she received some sponsorship envelopes, the only fighter that I saw receive some that night. At the start of the fight, it was clear that Tomoko had a significant height and reach advantage. In order to counter this, Eru utilized a karate-esque style, where she would come in, throw a low kick or punch, then get out before Tomoko could land a counter. In the second round, Tomoko initiated several clinches and in one of them, Eru rocked her with tight hooks. Throughout the fight, Eru took a more measured approach than in her last fight, but that may be because of the height difference. She is clearly a talented striker, so it will be interesting to see if she can build up her grappling skills as well.
In the co-main event, the two popular up-and-comers, Micco Nirvana and Kate Lotus fought a tightly contested bout. While Kate had the advantage on the feet, Micco had it on the ground and she worked to get it there throughout the fight. In fact, at one point, Kate’s coach started yelling “she’s definitely going for the takedown” over and over again, which got a laugh from the crowd.
Micco would have made one of her grappling coaches, Imanari proud, as she dropped for a knee bar, transitioned for a heel hook, then back to the knee bar. However, going for leg-locks has its risks and Kate was able to land hard hammer fists. In the second round, the fight wound up on the ground again and Micco was clearly tired. This allowed Kate to throw punches from her back, but Micco rallied and threw punches until the fight ended. Afterwards, she looked exhausted and even tweeted that when she was going home, she was so tired that she got on a train going in the wrong direction and didn’t notice for three stops. While Kate may have lost the fight, both fighters look like they have improved since their last outings and it will be interesting to see who they are matched up against next.
After the event, Kate was outside the venue taking pictures and signing autographs for mass of fans. It is remarkable how quickly she has created a fanbase.
Seika Izawa dominates
Recently Deep Jewels has put on some tag-team grappling matches and they had another one on Saturday. This time, accomplished amateur grapplers Mika Nagano, Hikaru Aono, Emi Tomimatsu, and Seika Izawa all took part. To get things started, they played rock-paper-scissors to decide the teams. Training partners Hikaru Aono and Seika Izawa ended up being on one team, with the veterans Mika Nagano and Emi Tomimatsu being on the other. Reminiscent of Ayaka Hamasaki in the last tag-team grappling match, Seika dominated. She quickly submitted Mika with a heel hook, then submitted Emi with an armbar after she grappled with Hikaru for a bit. At one point, Seika dragged Emi to the middle of the ring by her arm to keep her away from her corner. Afterwards, when addressing the crowd, she stated that she was wanting to show how strong she was, and wants people to see how good of an MMA fighter she is when she faces the striker, Si Woo Park next month. Hikaru Aono also asked Tomimatsu for a rematch, to which she responded positively, on the condition that she was healthy.
Nisse returns to form
In the main event, Nisse, the girl from Okinawa, returned to form with an impressive TKO victory over the popular Mizuki Furuse. Throughout the fight, she landed hard leg kicks, overhand punches, and repeatedly went for armbars. However in the second round, she stopped going for submissions and methodically landed ground and pound, until Furuse’s corner threw in the towel. It will be interesting to see what the two fighters do next. While the microweight division is growing, more opportunities exist for atomweights at the moment.
Results
- Nisse defeated Mizuki Furuse via TKO (Corner Stoppage, RD 2)
- Micco Nirvana defeated Kate Lotus via UD
- Grappling Match: Seika Izawa and Hikaru Aono defeated Mika Nagano and Emi Tomimatsu 2-0
- Eru Takebayashi defeated Tomoko Inoue via UD
- Aya Murakami defeated Kyoka Chibisai via Submission (Armbar, RD 1)
- Te-a defeated PonchanZ via UD
- Amateur Kickboxing: Saki Nakamura defeated Miyu Yamamoto via UD
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