Saya Ito returns to Thailand

This Sunday, Saya Ito returned to Thailand for the first time in almost a decade and defeated Petchchumpae, a 21-5 Thai fighter from Highland Gym. This was part of Super Champ, a weekly Muay Thai program that airs on TV in Bangkok. This promotion is kind of unique in that the fights are only 3 rounds and the matchups are always Thai fighters facing foreign fighters. It looks reasonably popular, with close to 100,000 subscribers to their Youtube channel. The entire event also looks like it was aired live on Youtube and has close to 100,000 views.

Now 23 years old, Saya Ito rose to national prominence in Japan as an amateur when she amassed a 78-12-3 record. She also had some high profiled matches with Tenshin Nasukawa (twice) and Little Tiger (twice). Having fought since she was a child, she slowed down in 2018 and 2019, fighting only two times. However, the former world champion has returned to active competition. She fought twice in 2020, four times in 2021, and has fought twice so far in 2022. During this period, she briefly attempted to break into kickboxing under the Rise banner, but now looks to be focused on Muay Thai. In Japan, she regularly competes for BOM (Battle of Muay Thai), but she has expressed a desire to compete abroad in the past and has also talked about fighting for One Championship. However, for that to happen, she would have to bulk up since One does not currently have her division.

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