Sunday, September 28, 2008

Valkyrie rises out of the ashes of Smackgirl

Smackgirl's financial problems has made this a very depressing summer in Japanese womens MMA. Smackgirl issued a press release a couple of weeks ago postponing the Sept. 21 show and the finals of the World REMIX tournaments promising a forthcoming announcement about their future. There's nothing yet but an announcement by GCM at yesterday's CAGE FORCE show indicates that Smackgirl will be replaced by a new womens MMA company called VALKYRIE. Veteran MMA fighter and womens jiu jitsu pioneer Yasuko Mogi (pictured) has been hired to produce the shows and she made yesterday's announcement. Her MMA record is 4-3. They have also hired former SMACKGIRL manager Nagao to run the front office. The matches will be in CAGE FORCE's wire cage with CAGE FORCE rules, meaning full MMA. They will begin with five weight classes: 100lbs, 107lbs, 115lbs, 125lbs, 135lbs.





The first VALKYRIE show will be Nov. 8 at Differ Ariake and will precede the scheduled CAGE FORCE show. There will be a total of eight matches on the show. The main event has SMACKGIRL Lightweight Champ Yuka Tsuji facing V1 at 115lbs. Of course Tsuji is a Smackgirl veteran and her prescence on this show probably signals the demise of Smackgirl better than anything I can think of. Tsuji's record is 19-1 and her last win was over Seo Hee Ham on the Dec. 26 SMACKGIRL show. She is generally acknowledged as one of the top female fighters in the world today. V1's record is 3-1 and her last fight was a loss to Emi Fujino at the Dec. 26 SMACKGIRL show. She did win the 2007 Next Cinderella Lightweight tournament. Tsuji says she looks forward to fighting like a beast in the cage. Of course I will be watching for more matches to be announced for the debut of VALKYRIE.
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:41 PM

    Defshepard here Frank,
    Wel the good news is here at last. There wills till be womens's MMA in Japan. And real MMA at that. While I am sorry to see the demise of Smackgirl. I think, Frank, I see something better on the horizon. You are dead on right about the presence of Yuka Tsuji signaling the end of Smackgirl. She is without a doubt one othe top female fighters on the scene today. I have one question for you Frank, how do you pronounce her last name?Thanks for the iformation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. frankp3168:00 PM

    Sue-Gee.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous7:45 PM

    Defshepard, Thank-you Frank, Sue-Gee it is.

    ReplyDelete

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