Last November, a former baseball player named Arisa Matsuda traveled up to Tokyo in order to face Mika Nagano, a former collegiate wrestler, who was one of the faces of Jewels back before it merged into Deep. At the time, not much was known about the 1-0 Matsuda who had just made her pro-debut three months before. To some, it may have seemed too soon for her to face Nagano, who while older, still had 30 more fights under her belt. However, Matsuda quickly showed that she was up to the task, stuffing the wrestler’s takedowns, defending several submission attempts, and landing some absolutely brutal ground-and-pound en route to a unanimous decision victory. She was so dominant that one of the judges scored the two-round bout 20-17.
Getting motivated to switch sports
While Matsuda does not come from a martial arts background, she was a professional baseball player, having first started playing when she was in fourth grade then eventually turning pro in 2013 and retiring in 2017. Throughout her career as a baseball player, she won awards and averaged over .300 as a batter, not including her rookie season. However, after focusing on and playing baseball for close to 13 years, Matsuda felt burnt out. She also happened to see Ilima Lei Macfarlane fighting on TV for Bellator and even though she didn’t understand the rules or have any background in martial arts, she realized that she wanted to give it a try.
Getting started, pro-debut gets delayed
Towards that end, she went to Hawaii for three months to start training then found a gym in Osaka where she could train full-time. Originally, the goal was to train for about a year and make her pro-debut around 2018, but Matsuda got married and had a baby, so naturally she took some time off. She returned to training in 2020, then a year later, she made her amateur debut in Deep Jewels, submitting Sarah and beating Machi via Split-Decision. Since then, Sarah has gone on to compete on Breaking Down and defeat other Sarah, while Machi has quickly become one of the hottest prospects in Deep Jewels’ 52kg division, making Matsuda’s wins all the more impressive.
Now, with a record of 3-0, Matsuda is looking to continue building up her record, so she can compete on the big stage outside of Japan. We had an opportunity to ask the up-and-comer some questions between fights, so please enjoy.
Chatting with Arisa
CJ: Is it correct that you first go interested in MMA after watching an Ilima Lei MacFarlane fight in Bellator? If so, do you remember which fight it was?
Arisa: That’s right. I can’t remember which fight it was, but it was when I was still an active baseball player. I just turned the TV on and Bellator was on. What I can remember well, is that Ilima won.
Even though I didn’t know the rules or anything about martial arts, Ilima dominated her opponent and it was really exciting. I can remember thinking that I also wanna do it.
In fact, my contract with my team was up for renewal so I decided to leave baseball and give martial arts a try.
CJ: So you retired from baseball in 2017 and started training in martial arts. Did you have any experience prior to that? You also went to Hawaii in order to train, can you talk about that?
Arisa: I didn’t have any martial arts experience whatsoever. The only sport I ever did was baseball, which I started in the 4th grade, so I didn’t have any experience with any other sports.
In my head, I’d had a desire to live abroad someday and since Ilima Lei was from Hawaii, I think I intuitively went there to start my training.
I was able to get in direct contact with a trainer there named Haru Shimanishi, who I’d found on the internet, so I decided to train with him.
I had absolutely no experience with martial arts, but by training everyday from morning to night, somehow or another, I started to feel like I was getting used to the moves/techniques.
Even though I couldn’t speak English at all, I basically communicated with people using gestures, so I felt like I could communicate with those that I got to know (lol), so it didn’t feel like there was a language barrier.
I trained under Haru for about three months, then returned to Japan, got married, had a kid, and made my pro-debut three years later.
CJ: You fought once last year (2022), how many times do you think you want to fight this year? Can you also tell us about your goals as an MMA fighter?
Arisa: This year, I wanna fight at least twice., but Ideally, I’d like to fight three or more times. I wanna fight for a promotion outside Japan someday, so I need to put together a solid record here in Japan.
CJ: By the way, how was the transition from baseball to MMA? Were there some aspects that were easier than others?
Arisa: It’s all difficult (lol), but I’m learning new things every day, so it’s a lot of fun. I train every day to get to a point where I can do what I couldn’t, which is a process that I enjoy.
CJ: How’d you get introduced to your current gym, BLOWS? Also, what’s it like training in Osaka, I think I saw you training with Moeri Suda?
Arisa: After I returned to Japan, I picked out a couple gyms in my hometown, Osaka, and went and checked them out. Of those, Blows had classes from morning to night, so I decided to join that gym because it provided an environment where I could train all day.
Mr Nakakura, the head of the gym, taught me MMA from the ground up, from scratch. He taught me how to use my body in a way that’s similar to how I moved it in baseball, plus he’s good at explaining in way’s that I can understand! There’s still a lot I can’t do, but thanks to him, I’ve already been able to learn so much.
There aren’t any other female fighters at BLOWS, but there are women that come to the jiu-jitsu classes and they’re all very experienced and skills, so I get to learn from them.
There also aren’t a lot of female fighters in Osaka, so we gather at Suda’s gym and hold a women’s training session about 2 to 3 times a month. Suda may be young, but she’s already had a strong career with a good track record. Plus, she’s pretty cute (lol).
CJ: Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! Do you have any comment or message for the readers?
Arisa: I’m going to become a world-class fighter so please give me your support!!
Arisa Matsuda Fight Videos
- Amateur fight against Machi
- Amateur fight against Sarah
- Pro-Debut against Chisato Wada
- 2nd Pro-fight against Mika Nagano
Follow Arisa on Twitter and Instagram
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