DEEP announces Womens Lightweight Title match for August 4 show

DEEP has announced several bouts for their August 4 show at Korakuen Hall. The semi main event is for the vacant DEEP Womens Lightweight Title between Hisae Watanabe and Satoko Shinashi. Like the Yuka Tsuji/WINDY Tomomi match recently announced, this has the potential to be a very big match in the womens MMA business in Japan. The match is a real contrast in styles. Shinashi is a veteran grappling expert who works as a trainer in DEEP's dojo. Like her pal Tomomi, Watanabe is a muay thai kickboxer and an expert striker. These two faced each other in 2002 in the finals of the Smackgirl Lightweight Japan Cup. Shinashi used her grappling skills to win. But Watanabe has worked on her ground work with Yuka Tsuji and if you add that to her already formidable striking skills, that makes her very tough to deal with. Watanabe has been 7-1 since that loss, losing only to Yuka Tsuji. This match was originally scheduled for February 5 but postponed due to an injury to Shinashi. So it's very unusual for a womens match to be the biggest match on a mens MMA show but this match should be very interesting and is already getting a lot of media attention in Japan.