Two title matches headline Aug. 29 DEEP JEWELS show

Emi Fujino, Mizuki Inoue

DEEP announced today that the Aug. 29 show in the cage at Differ Ariake will be a double header. There will be a DEEP show in the afternoon followed by a DEEP JEWELS show in the evening. They announced two DEEP JEWELS title matches. But before I get into that, a couple of weeks ago, DEEP JEWELS announced that all weight classes will conform to the world standard. So for example, instead Lightweight at 52kg. it is now Strawweight at 115lb. The other minor change is that elbows will now be allowed in selected matches. That means it won't be allowed in most matches similar to how they used to handle ground and pound before they made it completely legal. These are minor changes that I would describe as window dressing. Anyone who tries to characterize these as a big deal is blowing smoke up your ass. If that old fart Shigeru Saeki was serious about real change, he would make all DEEP JEWELS matches three five minute rounds and all title matches five five minute rounds. That's what fans want but he's very reluctant to change anything. The DEEP JEWELS Bantamweight Championship match had already been announced. Takayo Hashi will defend against Korean Kim Ji Yeong. These two fought to a draw on a ROAD FC show in Mar. 2014. Hashi has performed better since returning from knee surgery but Kim is 3-0 with 2 draws. So I wouldn't assume that Hashi would win easily. Today they announced that Mizuki Inoue (she is no longer billed as MIZUKI) will defend her DEEP JEWELS Strawweight Championship against veteran Emi Fujino. Mizuki is coming off of two straight losses in Invicta but I don't expect her to have much trouble with Fujino. Mizuki beat her as part of the tournament in 2013 and even broke Fujino's nose in a J-Girls kickboxing match several years ago. Fujino has never beaten anyone higher ranked than her. And until she does, I don't expect it from her. She's always been a midcard fighter. If you look at her record, all her losses have been to elite fighters and she's never beaten an elite fighter. Of course part of the problem is many DEEP JEWELS 115lb fighters have dropped to 105. So there are very few choices at 115lb right now. So again, the low talent level fails DEEP JEWELS. I will have more details when more matches are announced.