This past Saturday at the New Pier Hall in Tokyo, Deep Jewels held their final event of 2021. With Shizuka Sugiyama doing commentary, Seika Izawa and Kyoka Chibisai working the gacha-gacha booth, and Sakakibara in attendance, the event had a fun feel to it and despite the lack of a title match, there were some important matches that went down. Notably, Miki Motono, Aya Murakami, Moeri Suda, and Kate Lotus all picked up important wins. It is also worth noting that Hanako Sawa, a high level wrestler, successfully made her debut, putting on a takedown clinic en route to victory. Having transitioned to the sport in March, she is expected to take part in the flyweight tournament next year.
K-Clann goes 3-0
While none of them fight directly under K-Clann’s banner, all three fighters who prepared at the gym and fought at Deep Jewels 35 were victorious. Most notable of these three, were Kate Lotus and King Reina, who both needed a win lest they go into 2022 without a win in 2021.
With Seika Izawa in her corner, Kate earned a hard fought victory over Aoi Kuriyama in what was a grinding affair. Kuriyama for her part, looked to brawl throughout most of the fight and Kate occasionally obliged her, but for the most part, Kate looked to get Kuryiama to the ground. While she wasn’t able to do this, she was able to pin Kuriyama to the cage for long periods of time and punish her with knees. With this win, the increasingly popular Kate got back on the right track and will likely be in the flyweight tournament next year. In a very different kind of bout, King Reina dropped te-a almost immediately and continued to batter her for most of the opening round, before finishing her with an armbar. To te-a’s credit, she tried to tough it out and got out of some bad positions, but she was never able to recover from the opening punch.
Aya Murakami gets her third 1st round armbar in a row
2021 started out rough for the newcomer Aya Murakami, who was forced to withdraw from the Atomweight tournament due to an injury. She returned to action in September and since then has showcased the skills that allowed her to earn a blackbelt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu faster than any other woman in Japan.
Known for her love of cosplay, Aya made her way to the cage on Saturday dressed like a character from Jujutsu Kaisen, a popular manga/anime in Japan. Once the bout started, it became clear that she was not willing to stand and strike with Furure as she immediately sought to get the match to the ground. She tried to jump up into a guillotine choke and repeatedly pulled guard throughout the opening round. Initially, Furuse was able to avoid the ground but Aya eventually got her down, hit her with some hard ground and pound and finally locked on a tight armbar to submit her at the end of the first round.
With this win, Aya is clearly the number one contender in the Microweight division and Saeki commented after the event that she would likely fight Saori Oshima next.
Moeri Suda submits Eru Takebayashi, riding 4 fight win streak now
In a battle of teenagers, the 17 year old Moeri Suda looked flawless in her victory over the 18 year old Eru Takebayashi. On paper, this was a match between a grappler and a striker and that is exactly how it played out. As soon as the bell rang, Moeri ran at Eru, ate a knee, and got the match the ground. She then chained together a guillotine choke attempt, which led to a heel hook attempt, which led to a front choke attempt, and finally an armbar that forced the striker to tap out.
A talented grappler, Moeri had a rough 2020, going 0-2 to start her professional career. However, in 2021, she has now gone 4-0, with two wins via armbar. While her future is uncertain, a win over Eru, who once fought in Rizin, puts her in an interesting position. That last person to defeat Eru fought in Rizin and with the promotion starved for Atomweights, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Moeri get called up to the big stage after a couple more wins.
Miki Motono rebounds with dominant win over Hime
Having injured her knee and losing her title earlier this year, Miki Motono got back on the right track with a dominant victory over the former basketball player Hime. In the opening round, Miki combined her wrestling and Judo skills to repeatedly get Hime to the ground and at one point, looked to have a tight armbar but Hime was able to roll out of it. While she wasn’t able to get as close to finishing the fight in the second round, she was able to slam Hime to the mat in the closing seconds. Despite losing the bout, Hime is clearly athletic and moved well for a fighter so new to the game.
During the post-fight media scrum, she commented that her knee is doing much better and no longer needs to be taped, like it was in her second bout with Izawa. She also added that she has a lot she still needs to work on, but her goal is still to fight in Rizin one day. Afterwards, Saeki added that she should think of dropping to Atomweight due to the lack of fighters in the division.
Results
- Rajina defeated Saki Nakamura via SD (Amateur Kickboxing)
- Marina Kumagai defeated Pochan Z via UD (20-17, 20-18, 20-18)
- Otoha fought Haruka Yamaguchi to a Majority Draw (30-29 Yamaguchi, 29-29, 29-29)
- Hanako Sawa defeated Kano Kagaya via UD (20-18, 20-17 x2)
- Moeri Suda submitted Eru Takebayashi via Armbar (4:41 of RD 1)
- Shoko Fujita defeated Yurina via UD (20-18 x3)
- Yuko Kiryu defeated Tomoko Inoue via UD (20-17, 19-19 Must Yuko, 20-19)
- Kate Lotus defeated Aoi Kuriyama via UD (20-18, 19-19 Must Kate x2)
- Aya Murakami submitted Mizuki Furuse via Armbar (4:58 of RD 1)
- King Reina submitted te-a via Armbar (4:55 of RD 1)
- Miki Motono defeated Hime via UD (20-18 x3)
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