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| Saori Ishioka, Mai Ichii |
JEWELS held a press conference today at the DEEP dojo to announce the main event of their May 23 Shin-kiba 1st Ring show. In a match contracted for 52kg, "Ace Of JEWELS" Saori Ishioka will face pro wrestler Mai Ichii. Well, that's what they called her. Ishioka trains at Zendokai in Kagonei. Her record is 8-4 and her last match was a questionable victory over Sally Krumdiack at the Dec. 11 JEWELS show. She was absent from the Mar. 19 show due to an ankle injury. Mai Ichii works for the Ice Ribbon pro wrestling company. Her MMA record is 3-2 and her last match was a loss to Mika Nagano at the Mar. 19 JEWELS show. She's had some success with the M-1 kickboxing company. There are two reasons why Mai Ichii is the opponent for this match. She a very good striker and JEWELS matchmaker Shigeru Saeki wants to see how Ishioka handles herself with a good striker. And Ichii is an excellent interview. She knows how to cut a promo. The first thing Ichii says is she plans to break Ishioka's jaw with a right hook. Of course Ishioka is a little more reserved but she said that ain't happening. She said that Ichii needs to have her picture taken before before Ishioka messes up her face. She also said she is completely recovered from her ankle injury and has been training hard for a month. Ichii said afterwards rhat she did break an opponent's jaw in Shoot Boxing. She's saying the usual stuff but I expect Ishioka to take her to the ground as that is Ichii's weakness. JEWELS also announced a 52kg tournament will begin with eight fighters on the July 31 Shinjuku FACE show. The semis will be on the Oct. 10 Shin-kiba 1st Ring show and the final will be on the Dec. 17 Korakuen Hall show. Korean Ham Seo Hee is confirmed and Ishioka said she's using this upcoming match to get ready for the tournament. But the big news is that Megumi Fujii will NOT be in this tournament. She will be in Bellator's upcoming 115lb tournament. There have been rumours about a start date for that but nothing has been announced and I believe that the rumoured start date is premature and inaccurate due to scheduling issues. When I know the start date, you'll know.
I am sort of becoming a fan of Mai Ichii.
ReplyDeleteI like that she has fun with this. But I'd like her a lot better if she was good at MMA. But she's not. When she quit wrestling two years ago, she could have worked in MMA but instead worked for kickboxing feds like M-1. She has no ground skills.
ReplyDeleteMai Ichii has ground skills. They're just not as good as the opponents she gets matched against.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's true for this fight as well.
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