Rizin held a press conference today to discuss some of the details of Rizin 32, which takes place on November 20th in Okinawa at the Okinawa Arena. Some of those in attendance were Rena, Miyuu Yamamoto, and Nisse. Rena and Miyuu will face each other in a rematch 5 years in the making. In their first fight, Miyuu was making her pro-debut and it was only Rena’s second MMA fight. Now Rena has added 12 fights to her record and Miyuu has added 10 to her own. This will be the 2nd event headlined by women this year.
As a promotion, Rizin traditionally has relied on foreign talent when it comes to their women’s division. This can be illustrated by looking at the matchups in 2019, before the pandemic, when 14 out of 15 fights included a non-Japanese fighter. One of the fighters effected by the inability to bring in foreign talent is Rena. Normally an active fighter, she fought 4 times in 2019, she fought only once in 2020, the first time she’s done so since 2011, and it looks like it may be the same for 2021, unless she gets on the New Year’s Eve card. This is not due to a lack of trying though. As you may recall, there is evidence that she was supposed to fight at the Tokyo Dome, but the opponent fell through at the last minute, forcing her off the card. Despite these setbacks, a look at her social media reveals that she has been training actively and at some interesting places. Outside of her home base AACC, she’s been training at Brave, known for their wrestlers and operated by Miyata, as well as at the Shoot Boxing gym in Asakusa.
Just like Rena, the normally active Miyuu Yamamoto’s career has drastically slowed down as a result of the pandemic, only fighting once in 2020 and now she is scheduled for her first fight of 2021. Having made her debut against Rena in 2016, Miyuu has now put together a 6-5 record, including a win over the popular Kanna Asakura. At 47 years old, the 3 time world wrestling champion and sister of Kid Yamamoto, appears to be in great shape. Like Rena, she hasn’t been sitting idly by during the pandemic. Stuck in Japan due to immigration issues, she has been busy rebuilding Krazy Bee, which now includes Si Woo Park and Itsuki Hirata, and has also been running a pop-up coffee shop.
When it was announced that Rizin would be holding an event in Okinawa, people started immediately wondering if Nisse would be on the card. This only increased when she tweeted that she wanted to be on it. A native of Okinawa, she is the oldest of 6 sisters and the daughter of a fisherman, who she helps on her days off. Recently, she was also part of a commercial for Orion, an Okinawan beer company. Inside the ring, she is coming off a TKO victory over one-time Rizin fighter Mizuki Furuse. This win snapped a 3 fight losing skid. However, it is worth noting that these losses were against tough competition and the more recent two also took place in a new division as Nisse moved from microweight to atomweight (She did debut as an atomweight before moving down). Before the skid, she made her impact on the local MMA scene when she TKO’d Satoko Shinashi in the 1st round of their fight. This is only the 2nd time the veteran has been finished in 44 fights. Known for being aggressive, it makes sense that she’s been added to this card.
Rizin 32 takes place on November 22nd in Okinawa, Japan.
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