A little more than a week later, Deep Jewels held their 37th event at the Korakuen Hall in front of approximately 1,000 people. Saori Oshima rebounded from a loss to Hime and defeated the BJJ up-and-comer Moeri Suda to retain her championship, Rin Nakai smashed her opponents en route to the Flyweight Championship, and Higashi proved it wasn’t a fluke by defeating King Reina again and winning the Featherweight Championship. Here are 5 takeaways/random observations from the event.
#5 Microweight Going Strong
As we have discussed before, the Microweight division represents a rebranding of what was Deep’s Flyweight division, which was initially established back in 2008 and featured the popular Satoko Shinashi. The division was re-vitalized in 2019 and Saori Oshima became the champion a year later. At around the same time, Amp the Rocket became the Deep Jewels Microweight Champion, something that has not escaped the notice of Oshima, who told us that she would like to face Amp sometime this year in a unification bout. In addition to these champions, Deep Jewels has quietly built up the division with a mixture of young talent and veterans, most notably the undefeated Aya Murakami, who received her BJJ blackbelt faster than any other woman in Japanese history and has won her last 3 fights by submission.
- Saori Oshima (27 years old, Deep Champion)
- Amp the Rocket (25 years old, DJ Champion)
- Aya Murakami (30 years old)
- Momoka Yamazaki (29 years old)
- Kyoka Chibisai (24 years old)
- Nisse (26 years old)
- Moe Sasaki (22 years old)
- Reina Kobayashi (30 years old)
- Satoko Shinashi (45 yeas old)
- Emi Sato (41 years old)
#4 Former Collegiate Athletes Go 5-0
Sunday was a good day for the four former college athletes, Nagano, Higashi, Oshima, and Nakai. While Higashi and Nakai didn’t have lengthy collegiate careers due to career-ending injuries, they were both extremely high-level. Higashi won the national tournament in high school and Nakai finished third. Oshima of course went to the prestigious Tokai University with her teammate Miki Motono, where she won the Junior All Japan Tournament in 2014. Nagano, the only wrestler in the group, finished fourth in the Queen’s Cup, where she competed in the same division as the Olympic great Saori Yoshida. It should be noted that while King Reina does have an extensive Judo background, it does not look like she competed after high school.
- Mika Nagano (Wrestling, Chukyo Women’s University)
- Yoko Higashi (Judo, Nippon Sports Science University)
- Saori Oshima (Judo, Tokai University)
- Rin Nakai x2 (Judo, Teikyo University)
#3 Featherweight & Flyweight Need Foreign Talent
In her 9-fight career, the new champion Higashi has fought 2 Japanese opponents. Similarly, in her 18-fight career, King Reina has fought 4 Japanese opponents. In other words, they both have depended on foreign fighters for most of their careers. This isn’t going to change anytime soon, as there aren’t a lot of fighters at 65.7kg domestically. With the borders opening back up and Saeki already talking about bringing in foreign talent for fighters like Rin Nakai, we should expect them to bring in foreign fighters for both Higashi and King Reina to face.
#2 Red Goes Undefeated
Not only did the Red Corner win every fight on Sunday, but the older fighter also always beat the younger.
- Rin Nakai (1986) defeats Shizuka Sugiyama (1987) – 3 months, 20 days older
- Saori Oshima (1994) defeats Suda Moeri (2004) – 9 years, 8 months older
- Yoko Higashi (1986) defeats King Reina (1996) – 10 years, 4 months older
- Mika Nagano (1983) defeats Kate Lotus (1998) – 14 years, 2 months older
- Momoka Yamazaki (1992) defeats Kyoka Chibisai (1997) – 4 years, 9 months older
- Rin Nakai (1986) defeats Te-a (Unknown)
#1 Oshima & Nakai: Uncertain Futures
Both Rin Nakai and Saori Oshima walked out of Deep Jewels 37 with belts around their waist. That is not all they have in common, as both also have uncertain futures. Nakai’s future is uncertain in the sense that we don’t know when or who she will fight for next. After the event, she posted on Twitter and her blog that she had terminated her contract with her management company and that she is now a free agent. It is no secret that Nakai wants to fight for the UFC again, however, her immediate plans are unknown.
Unlike Nakai, the issue for Oshima isn’t where she will be fighting next, but will she be fighting again. Her husband has not been getting the results he used to in Judo and if he has to retire, it is likely that he will be transferred out of Tokyo for work, which would make it much more difficult for Saori to train. She hasn’t made any decisions yet.
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