JEWELS held a press conference today to announce the main event and a couple of other matches for their Mar. 19 Shinjuku FACE show. But first they announced that Saori Ishioka suffered an injury in training and will not be on the show. No Megumi Fujii either. The main event is very interesting as HIROKO (left) will try to avenge the only loss in her career to date against Hitomi Akano (right). In the past HIROKO has always fought at Open Weight but this fight is contracted for 65kg. That's a 10kg cut for HIROKO. And it's not like she's muscular. She's just tall. Of course Hitomi Akano trains at AACC. Her record is 15-6 and her last fight was a win over Miki Morifuji on the July 11 JEWELS show. She is expected to be a part of the upcoming Strikeforce 135lb #1 contender tournament. HIROKO trains at Master Japan. Her record is 7-1-1 and her last fight was a win over Shannon Hooper at the May 16 JEWELS show. Akano won over HIROKO on the Apr. 25, 2008 Smackgirl show. HIROKO made it very clear that she is cutting weight because she wants to come to Strikeforce and fight Cris Cyborg. If she wins this fight, she could be a part of the 145lb #1 contender tournament. But they might want to keep her past as a dominatrix quiet.
The semi-main event is also very interesting as Nika Nagano (right) will face Mai Ichii (left) in a match contracted for 52kg. These two know each other from working at Sakura Emi's Ice Ribbon pro wrestling company. Ichii is known to be a little nuts and can be annoying. Her MMA record is 3-1 and her most recent fight was a win over Megumi Watanabe at the Nov. 2, 2008 Square Jungle exhibition. She started out as a pro wrestler trained by Sakura Emi when she owned Gtkn. She left pro wrestling a couple of years ago and has worked mostly for the M-1 kickboxing company. She has recently returned to pro wrestling for Ice Ribbon and that's where she trains. Nagano trains at S-Keep. She comes from the renowned wrestling program at Chukyo University. Her record is 5-2 and her last win was over Yuko Kagoshima on the Dec. 11 JEWELS show to win the ROUGH STONE tournament. She has also dabbled in pro wrestling at Ice Ribbon. Ichii was needling Nagano about her lack of commitment to pro wrestling. Nagano made it clear that she does pro wrestling for fun and MMA is her priority. She said Ichii can say what she wants. Nagano says she will knock her out. In a match contracted for 58kg, Shizuka Sugiyama will face Miki Morifuji. Sugiyama trains at the Yokohama branch of Zendokai. Her record is 6-1 and her last fight was a win over Ko Ozeki Dec. 11, JEWELS show. Morifuji trains at T-Blood. Her record is 8-6 and her last fight was a win over Han So Lee at the Nov. 11 DEEP vs CMA Korea show. All matches are scheduled for two five minute rounds.
If Hiroko signed with SF their's no way they would keep her dominatrix past quiet. In fact, they would probably use it to promote her. Hey, made me take notice.
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