When the 150 cm (4″11) and 44kg (97lb) Aya Murakami steps into the ring at Deep Jewels 34, she will be bigger than her opponent for the first time in her career. Her opponent, Kyoka Chibisai, stands at 146cm (4″8) and walks around at 42kg (93lb), making her the smallest fighter in Deep and Deep Jewels history. Over the past couple of years, the Microweight division has been receiving some attention in Japan and despite the pandemic throwing a wrench into some of their plans, the division appears to be growing quite nicely. While not as deep as the Atomweight division, it is deeper than Strawweight and Flyweight within Japan.
History of the Division
As one of the pioneers of the women’s divisions in Japan, Satoko Shinashi has had a great amount of influence. She’s fought 25 times for Deep over the course of a career dating back to 2001. Her rivalry with Hisae Watanabe drew a lot of attention and as a result of her dominance, she became one of the faces of the promotion. In 2008, a single day tournament was held to decide the inaugural Flyweight (45kg/99lb) champion. While Satoko went on to win the tournament and the championship, she got pregnant later that year and took a leave of absence to take care of her family. As a result, the title went dormant.
Satoko returned to action in 2014 and gradually dropped down to 44kg (97lb). In December of 2019, she fought and lost to the Okinawan Nisse, getting finished for only the second time in her 44 fight career. As the fight had been a non-title match, a title match was quickly scheduled for May of 2020, where it would be rebranded as the Microweight championship. However, as a result of the pandemic, the event was canceled and the fight never happened. Instead, Satoko relinquished the title in August, citing her inability to train and changes in her daily life as a result of the pandemic. Despite relinquishing the title, she added that she would like to return to action in 2021 as a challenger.
Current State of the Division
When Satoko returned the title in August of 2020, a match was set for September between Nisse and the judoka Saori Oshima. Having made her debut earlier that year, the 150cm (4″11) mother of twins caught the eye of Deep officials when she submitted the popular Sakura in July. She would go on to submit Nisse, in a little over 2 minutes into the first round. In doing so, she became the new Deep Microweight champion and won her first of now two titles.
At roughly the same time the above events were going on, Deep Jewels was holding a Microweight tournament in order to crown their own champion. The goal of which was that the two champions would face each other in a title unifying bout. As part of this tournament, Mizuki Furuse defeated the former Invicta title challenger Yasuko Tamada and one time Rizin fighter, Amp the Rocket defeated the veteran Emi Sato.
However, as a result of the pandemic, Amp the Rocket was not able to get into Japan. Unrelated to the pandemic, Mizuki got pregnant, meaning the fight couldn’t be rescheduled in the near future and as a result, Amp was crowned the champion. According to some reports, the plan then had been to bring Amp to Japan, much like Si Woo Park, who left South Korea and has stayed in Japan in order to fight. In an odd series of events, Mizuki is now set to return before Amp, on September 4th.
Currently, Deep and Deep Jewels are the only promotions with active Microweight divisons. As a result, some of the fighters bounce around, fighting at both Atomweight and Microweight. Saori is already a champion in both divisions and Mizuki and Amp have talked about wanting to do so as well.
Currently, the division contains fighters like Saori Oshima, Amp the Rocket, Mizuki Furuse, Aya Murakami, Koyoka Chibisai, Momoka Yamazaki, Nisse, and Satoko Shinashi who has announced her intention to return.
Deep Jewels 34 goes down on September 4th and includes 4 regulars of the Microweight division.
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