Ham Seo Hee back in the JEWELS Lightweight Tournament

Mika Nagano a pic of Ham Seo Hee

The big news coming out of JEWELS' Shin-kiba 1st Ring show on Sunday had nothing to do with the show which was for the most part uneventful. Remember a couple of weeks ago when JEWELS announced that Ham Seo Hee was out of the tournament and released from JEWELS. The Saori Ishioka vs Celine match was announced as a tournament qualifier. Yesterday JEWELS announced that Ham is back in the tournament. They held a draw to determine the semi final matches. Ham will face Mika Nagano and Ayaka Hamazaki will face Sakura Nomura. The semi finals and final will be Dec. 17 at Korakuen Hall. Ham wasn't there and the official explanation was she had a schedule conflict. Of course that doesn't explain why Ham was released. You may recall that CMA Korea booked Ham in a GLADIATOR show kickboxing a male wrestler in what seemed like a possible attempt to get more money out of JEWELS. When JEWELS showed that they were willing to drop Ham and change the tournament, I assume the two companies kissed and made up and let bygones be bygones. Ham is back in the tournament and could win. All's well that ends well but oy vey.

Saori Ishioka knees Celine

So what about Saori Ishioka vs Celine? They did it but they led off the show with it. The main event had veteran Miki Morifuji vs the returning Ariya. She hadn't fought in six years mostly due to injury. It didn't last long. Morifuji took Ariya's back and won with a rear naked choke at 1:51 of round one. Then Morifuji announce that she will retire on the Dec. 17 Korakuen Hall show. Though Saori Ishioka vs Celine was no longer a tournament qualifier, it was an important match for Ishioka who had considered retirement after she lost to Sakura Nomura on July 31. It turned out to be a very competitive match with a lot of back and forth between the two. Ishioka won a unanimous decision but some observers questioned the decision. Maybe a rematch is in order. Because the whole Ham Seo Hee nonsense screwed up plans for this show, Sakura Nomura won a Shoot Boxing match over Arica. Of course Nomura is in the semi finals of the tournament. And to keep the other tournament semi finalist busy, Ayaka Hamazaki won a one day grappling tournament over Amiba, Emi Tomimatsu and Asami Kodera. It should be interesting to see what Hamazaki does in the tournament as her style is very much like her teacher Megumi Fujii. I noticed that her left knee was wrapped.

MIZUKI submits Emi Murata

The rest of the show consisted of the semi finals of the three ROUGH STONE tournaments. The purpose of the ROUGH STONE tournaments is to find prospects. But I guess they didn't get many applicants because some of the fighters in the tourmanent were more suspect than prospect. The 56kg tournament had the most interesting matchup with teenage kickboxer MIZUKI facing Emi Murata. MIZUKI is 16 years old and made her debut with the J-Girls kickboxing company in May. In her MMA debut, she won with an armbar at 2:58 of round two. She did well for a schoolgirl. Back to recess. In the other semi final, the kickboxer ASAKO easily beat the hapless HARUMI with a KO at 2:31 of round one. In the 52kg tournament, pro wrestler Mai Ichii won by unanimous decision over Miyo Yoshida. Yoshida did OK in round one but Ichii took control in round two and won easily. In the other semi final, Hiroko Kitamura won a unanimous decision over Rina Tomita. In the 48kg tournament, veteran Yukiko Seki won by unanimous decision over Yoko Kagoshima. It was competitive for the most part but Seki's takedowns seemed to get her the nod. And after exchanging punches, Kikuyo Ishikawa wasted no time in finishing Fuuka Misaki with an armbar at 2:24 of round one. The Dec. 17 Korakuen Hall show will be the pivotal show in JEWELS history. We'll see if they can fill that place.