RIZIN held a press conference today to announce that Ayaka Hamasaki vs Alyssa Garcia has been added to the May 6 show at Marine Messe Fukuoka. this fight will be at Atomweight. Ayaka is a former Invicta Atomweight Champion. The last time we saw her she was trying to get into the UFC Strawweight division. But after losing to Livia Renata Sousa in Mar. 2017, She mostly concentrated on training RENA for RIZIN's Atomweight tournament. At 36 years old, she may have considered retirement too. Of course Ayaka was trained by the legend Megumi Fujii. Her record is 14-2. At the press conference, Ayaka said that RIZIN has approached her before but the timing wasn't right. She also wanted to fight at Strawweight at the time. But if she's going to stay in Japan, Atomweight is the best weight class for her. Alyssa is 24 years old from Whittier, CA. Josh Barnett trains her. Her record is 3-4 but most of her fights have been for either RIZIN or Combate America. So she has fought a competition level that is probably higher than she would normally see in regional US companies. On one hand, she lost to Maria Oliveira in the first round of the RIZIN Atomweight Championship tournament. On the other hand, she won over that tournament's champ Kanna Asakura in Dec. 2016. Kanna has improved tremendously since then. I think she's a different fighter today. Alyssa wasn't at the press conference. Her picture was there. But she sent a note that she is excited about the fight and she knows that she is the underdog. Ayaka should be the favorite if she is the same fighter. But she hasn't fought in over a year. And she does have a history of knee problems. This could be a good scrap.
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