JEWELS Featherweight tournament starts on Sept. 11

Sugi Rock

As much as I dislike SHOOT BOXING, at least they know how to hype a show. Today JEWELS announced the first round of their Featherweight tournament that will begin on the Sept. 11 Shin-kiba 1st Ring show and conclude on the Dec. 17 Shinjuku FACE show. For some reason, they chose to issue a press release instead of holding a press conference. You have to get these girls in front of the public if you want fans to care about them. This tournament should be a big deal but they're not treating it that way. The favourite for this tournament should be Naho "Sugi Rock" Sugiyama. If you haven't seen her, check her out on Youtube. She's very slick on the ground. Her opponent is the veteran Ayumi "Edge" Saito. Sugi Rock trains at the A3 branch of WK. Her record is 4-0 and her last win was over Misaki Takimoto on the May 14 JEWELS show. She also has a non-title win over former VALKYRIE champ Yasuko Tamada. Edge trains with Yuka Tsuji at Angura. Her record is 8-5 and her last fight was a loss to Lisa Ward on the Feb. 14, 2008 Smackgirl show. Obviously ring rust could be an issue. She's not as good as Sugi Rock anyway. In the second match, Misaki Takimoto will face MIYOKO. Takimoto is a trainer at Zendokai Yokohama. Her record is 13-12-4 and her last fight was a loss to Sugi Rock on the May 14 JEWELS show. She is a karate expert but is vulnerable on the ground. MIYOKO trains at Grabaka. Her record is 3-3 and her last fight was a win over Yuka Okumura on the July 9 JEWELS show. In the third match, Yasuko Tamada will face Kikuyo Ishikawa. Tamada trains at AACC. She is the former VALKYRIE champ. Her record is 12-5-3 and her last fight was a non-title loss to Sugi Rock on the Nov. 28 VALKYRIE show. Ishikawa trains at the Champion Reversal Gym in Yokohama. She was last year's 48kg Rough Stone Champ. Her record is 5-2 and her last fight was a win over SACHI on the July 9 JEWELS show. The fourth match is Yukiko Seki vs SACHI. Seki trains at FIGHT CHIX. Her record is 9-20 and her last fight was a win over sakura on the July 23 PANCRASE show. She has won four of her last five fights. But if you look at her opposition, she didn't beat anyone who is very good. And that loss was to Ishikawa. SACHI trains at Zendokai in Toyohashi. Her record is 8-5-1 and her last fight was a loss to Ishikawa on the July 9 JEWELS show. She also lost to Seki in 2007. The bottom line is Sugi Rock should be the favourite. In a 54kg match Rina Tomita will face anna. Tomita trains at AACC and is coming back from health problems. Her record is 3-5 and her last fight was a win over Jeannette Hinz on the Dec. 11 MMA Berlin show. anna trains at FIGHT CHIX. Her record is 1-7 and her last fight was a loss to Sadae Manhoef on the May 14 JEWELS show. They also added a kickboxing match but no main event yet.