Friday, January 18, 2008

Lisa Ward looking for revenge at the Smackgirl World REMIX tournament


Smackgirl held a press conference on Friday to announce some of the fighters participating in the 2008 World REMIX Tournament. In the past, it has been a one day Open Weight tournament. This time around, the new owners of Smackgirl are having an Open Weight and a Lightweight tournament. The first round will be Feb. 14 at Korakuen Hall. The smi finals will be Apr. 25 at Korakuen Hall. The finals will be July 24 at Korakuen Hall. Smackgirl had previously announced that the incomparable Megumi Fujii and Brazilian Anna Michele Taveras will be in the Lightweight tournament. The bad news is that Smackgirl Lightweight Champ Yuka Tsuji will not be in the tournament. I'm not surprised. Let's look at who will be there.




So Megumi Fujii and her 13-0 record is the odds on favourite to win the Lightweight tournament. Anna Michele Tavares is 5-2. She got clobbered in her last fight by Yuka Tsuji on the Sept. 6, 2007 Smackgirl show. And Fujii has a victory over Tavares on the Mar. 12, 2005 G-Shooto show. Coming on her first trip to Japan is Cindy Hales. She is 1-0 with a win over Shawn Tamaribuchi on the Nov. 3, 2007 Fighting Femme Fatales show. Also added is Smackgirl veteran Ayumi "Edge" Saito. Her record is 8-4. But the most interesting addition is Lisa Ward.




Lisa Ward's record is 10-3 but the interesting thing is she lost to Fujii at a BodogFight show in Vancouver on Aug. 24. In a written statement, Lisa said she wants to face Fujii in the tournament finals and get revenge for the loss in Vancouver. Cindy Hales said she looks forward to fighting Ward and also Fujii is one of her favourite fighters and she respects her a lot. At the press conference, Fujii said she's game for any and all of them. She said Ward is very strong on the ground and Tavares is difficult to take down. She plans to do what she always does and win the tournament. I wouldn't bet against her.




Fujii's AACC teammate and former Smackgirl Middleweight Champ Hitomi Akano will be in the Open Weight tournament. Her record is 11-5 and her most recent fight was a loss to Vanessa Porto at the Nov. 3, 2007 Fighting Femme Fatales show. Also added is pro wrestler Atsuko Emoto. Her MMA record is 1-1 but she is best known for wearing the Bullfight Sora mask. She sometimes wrestles without the mask. She just returned from a trip to the dojos of Mexico and usually trains at Mariko Yoshida's Ibuki dojo. Akano says she's looking to get back on a winning streak and I think the tournament is more fun for Emoto than anything else. Lana Stefanac has been invited to this tournament but she has some injuries that may prevent her from participating.

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