Asahi.com talks to Saori Ishioka

It's very unusual for one of Japan's mainstream media outlets to cover women's MMA so it's important that Asahi.com published an article about up and coming fighter Saori Ishioka. Saori is 7-3 and won over Hanako Kobayashi in the main event of the most recent JEWELS show. Saori was born Sept. 13, 1987 in Hiroshima and studied judo in school. While working at a factory in Hiroshima, she started training at Zendokai and was invited to try her hand at MMA in Mar. 2007. She lost her debut to Kyoko Takabayashi in the opening round of Smackgirl's Next Cinderella tournament on Mar. 7, 2007. Though she lost, Saori got hooked, quit her factory job and moved to Tokyo to become a professional fighter. Now she works in a convenience store during the day and trains at night at Zendokai's main branch. Saori is rapidly becoming one of Japan's top female fighters. She says she is working hard and she feels her kicks have improved tremendously. She also said she wants to be a big part of women's MMA in Japan becoming equal to the men and she wants to be a role model to young girls. This kind of exposure in one of Japan's daily papers can only be good for women's MMA.