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| Yuka Tsuji, Saori Ishioka |
JEWELS announced on their PR blog today that after an absence of one year and five months, Yuka Tsuji will return to MMA to face Saori Ishioka. Yuka Tsuji is a former Smackgirl and Valkyrie champ and is one of the all time greats of women's MMA. She trains at Angura and of course trains other fighters. Her record is 22-2 and I'm sure many of you are aware that her last fight was a loss to VV Mei at the Feb. 11, 2010 Valkyrie show. Yuka underwent reconstructive shoulder surgery in May 2010 and also underwent arthoscopic knee surgery. The shoulder surgery could have ended her MMA career but she announced at the most recent JEWELS show she is ready to return. And she is very excited about facing Ishioka in her comeback match. Saori Ishioka trains at Zendokai. Her record is 11-6 and her last match was a loss to Ham Seo Hee at the Feb. 25 DEEP show. She wasn't very happy with her own performance in that match and vowed to work on her ground game in particular. Tsuji will certainly be a good test of that. The match is contracted for 52kg with special JEWELS rules meaning unlimited ground and pound is allowed. If you're wondering why JEWELS didn't have a press conference to announce this match, it's because Zendokai opened a branch in Laos and Ishioka is training there right now. Fans have already asked me about a potential Yuka Tsuji vs Megumi Fujii match. I don't have an answer but I think that match is too big for JEWELS. Let's see what Tsuji does in this match first.
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