This Sunday, Kanna Asakura returns to action at Rizin 31, where she will face Deep and Deep Jewels Champion, Saori Oshima. With 13 fights in the promotion, Kanna is currently tied with Rena for the most fights in the promotion for a woman. With Rena having announced her intention to retire soon, it seems likely that Kanna will surpass her soon. We last saw Kanna in action back in March, when she fought current champion Ayaka Hamasaki in an exciting back-in-forth bout, narrowly losing by split decision. When asked about her last fight, she told us, “I’m disappointed that i wasn’t able to avenge my earlier loss to her or get the belt, but I’ve gotten a lot of response from it.”
Fighting a 2 divisional champion
This Sunday, Kanna will welcome Saori Oshima to Rizin, who is making her promotional debut. At 26 years old, Oshima comes from a strong Judo background and is a relative newcomer to the sport, having started less than 2 years ago. Despite her relative inexperience, especially when compared to Kanna who has been competing for 7 years, Oshima has quickly climbed up the ranks and has won championships in both Deep and Deep Jewels. In addition to being a two division champion, Oshima trains at AACC with Ayaka Hamasaki and Rena, who have fought Kanna a combined 4 times, perhaps providing her with some practical advice. When asked about her upcoming opponent, Kanna commented, “I think she has a lot of momentum. She’s got a belt in two weight classes, so she’s a talented fighter.” When asked about how she thinks the fight will go, she went on to add, “I think she’s going to try to grapple with me, but I want to control the pace of the fight wherever it goes.”
Becoming a Social Media Success
Outside of the ring, Kanna has garnered a lot of attention on social media, specifically with regards to her Youtube channel. In fact her social media presence is bigger than any other female mixed martial artist in Japan and is one of the bigger in Rizin. When asked about this success, she told us, “It makes me really happy. I hope that more people can get to know about mixed martial arts through social media.” She then went on to add that she first got into Youtube as a way to share things about herself. Through her videos and social media, she told us she hopes to market herself to large market while providing a means for people to get to know her better.
Drive to be a Champion
Motivated by her desire to be a champion, Kanna Asakura has shown tremendous growth in her past couple of fights. In fact, during the most recent Rizin Confession video, her opponent’s coach commented on the improvements she’s been making, saying that he thinks it’s better to fight Kanna now instead of later, due to how quickly she’s been improving. Speaking of motivation, in the short-term, Kanna would like to win this fight and make a quick turnaround to fight on the New Year’s Eve card, telling us that she doesn’t care against who, as she’ll fight anyone. In the long term, she wants to be a champion. With Ayaka and Rena both making hints to their retirement, she made it clear that she has not intention on retiring before she becomes a champion. After that, she hasn’t really thought about when she plans to call it a career.
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How to Watch
International audiences can watch Rizin 31 on LIVEnow.
Rizin 31 – Full Card
- Yutaka Saito vs Juntaro Ushiku
- Kanna Asakura vs Saori Oshima
- Tsuyoshi Sudario vs Saint
- Masanori Kanehara vs Takahiro Ashida
- Daichi Abe vs Akira
- Daisuke Nakamura vs Suguru Nii
- Rikuto Shirakawa vs Takuya Yamamoto
- Nadaka Yoshinari vs Naoki Ishikawa
- Yusaku Nakamura vs Yuki Ito
- Seichiro Ito vs Kunta Hashimoto
- Ryuya Okuwaki vs Ryuto Oinuma
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