This Sunday, several highly accomplished kickboxers and Muay Thai fighters will compete for Rise at the famed Korakuen Hall. Interestingly, this will be the first women’s only kickboxing event at the venue in close to 26 years. In one of the fights, Saya Ito will be facing Koyuki Miyazaki. Despite only being 22 years old, Saya has already put together an impressive career as a Muay Thai fighter. Having gotten started when she was 4, she was winning professional world titles as an amateur, when she was in junior high school. Having accomplished so much in the world of Muay Thai, she is now looking to showcase Muay Thai in the kickboxing ring. In the lead-up to this fight, she held an open-workout and answered questions from the media. (photo is (c) of Rise)
Rise-debut against Ayaka
In early 2020, Saya made her promotional debut for Rise and faced Ayaka. Going into the fight, she hadn’t been as active as she was when she was younger, only fighting once in 2018 and once in 2019. It also worth noting, that despite their similarities, Muay Thai and kickboxing are quite different. Not only are the rules and scoring different, the round lengths are also different. Saya seemed to struggle under the different rule-set and ended up losing via KO for the first time in her career. When asked about this fight and its impact on her, she was very direct and made the following comment,
During the fight, my corner and I both thought that I lost the 1st and 2nd rounds, so I felt impatient. I had a hard time dealing with her coming forward so aggressively because I wasn’t able to tie her up or clinch, so mentally, I felt trapped. Because of that, my stamina was exhausted and I eventually gave up. It’s the first time I’ve ever lost heart in my life…[Afterwards] I was using the fact that it wasn’t a Muay Thai match as an excuse, but I got frustrated with thinking that. So even though its a different opponent now, I want to challenge myself under Rise rules and get my revenge…Frankly speaking, I can’t go out [leave kickboxing] on a loss, it would be my greatest regret…I also don’t want to make excuses…instead, I want to show that I can win under Rise rules. I want to show that I can succeed outside of Muay Thai.
Saya Ito
Earlier this year, roughly 1 year after the fight with Ayaka, Saya fought her again, this time under Muay Thai rules. In the rematch, under familiar rules, Saya won a fairly one-sided decision and gained a degree of redemption. However, the victory was under Muay Thai rules, so it looks like Saya is now looking to get complete redemption by winning a match in Rise under their kickboxing rules.
Return to Rise
This Sunday, Saya will return to Rise for the first time since the Ayaka fight. This time, she will be facing Koyuki Miyazaki, Rise’s atomweight champion. In her first fight, Saya admitted that she didn’t train enough for it, but now that she’s experienced fighting in Rise, she understands the differences and what she found difficult, so she’s been working hard to prepare. When asked, she further elaborated, “I’ve been training for about a month without elbows or knees, so I think I’ll be fine. I’ve been working towards a kickboxing match.”
When asked about her opponent, she added, “[Miyazaki’s] a current champion in Rise and I feel that she’s good. I think her background is in karate, so she’s suited to kickboxing because of her ability to ‘hit and run.'” When asked how she matches up against this style, she candidly added that she doesn’t match up to it well, since it doesn’t really exist in Muay Thai, but she’s been working on it in preparation for this match.
Genius vs Genius
Ahead of the fight, Miyazaki has been outspoken and posted some fun comments on Twitter. For example, both fighters have the word “genius” in their nickname, so she tweeted that “there doesn’t need to be two geniuses, so let’s do it.” When asked about this, Saya responded both broadly and specifically. Broadly, she noted that more and more fighters, including the women, have become more vocal recently, and despite her reserved nature, she is going to try hard to be more vocal. However, we shouldn’t expect any crazy outlandish comments, as she added that having witnessed so many strong fighters in places like Thailand, she’s well aware that their are better fighters than her, so she’s maintained a level head.
Specifically addressing the genius tweet, she commented, “First of all, I’m grateful that people think I’m a genius. I don’t think I am. I believe it’s my hard work that’s led to my results. But I don’t think we need two champions, so I’m going to try my best to beat this kickboxing champion, even though I’m a Muay Thai fighter…” In closing, she added, “Miyazaki is the current Rise champion, so I know it won’t be easy, so I want to focus on winning. Of course, I’d like to try to knock her down, but if I think about knocking her down, I might over exert myself, so I just want to win like I always do and focus just on winning.”
Rise Girls Power 5
Rise Girls Power 5 will take place on September 12th at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The event will stream on Abema TV and Fite TV.
Full Card
- 49kg Champion Hinata Terayama vs 52kg Champion Manazo Kobayashi (49.5kg, 109lbs)
- Koyuki Miyazaki vs Saya Ito (46.5kg, 102.5lbs)
- Koto Hiraoka vs Nana Okuwaki (46kg, 101.5lbs)
- King Reina vs Yuka Murakami (Special Exhibition Match)
- Yaya Weerasakreck vs Akari (52kg, 115lbs)
- Haruka Asai vs Yuka Murakami (57.5kg, 127lbs)
- Misaki Shimada vs Ayaka Nishihara (43kg, 95lbs)
- Tomomi Yamamoto vs Wakana Tsuji (52kg, 115lbs)
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