Veteran joshi wrestler Kyoko Kimura to make MMA debut on Nov. 12 PANCRASE show

Megumi Yabushita, Kyoko Kimura

PANCRASE announced today they have added a women's match to their Nov. 12 Shinjuku FACE show. It will be veteran joshi wrestler Kyoko Kimura making her MMA debut vs Megumi Yabushita. The fight will be Bantamweight and is scheduled for two five minute rounds. Kyoko Kimura is 34 years old and is from Yokohama. I guess it was around 2005 it looked like she wasn't going to cut it as a wrestler. She was living in Los Angeles in 2000 and was trained to wrestle by FMW legend Hayabusa. He was living in Mexico at the time. But pregnancy derailed Kyoko's career plans. After her daughter's birth, Kyoko moved back to Japan to work for JWP. But she seemed to forget everything she learned. It got so bad that JWP owner Commando Bolshoi was going to fire her. But instead she sent her to legendary wrestler and trainer Mariko Yoshida. Yoshida was just starting Ibuki at the time. Basically, Yoshida saved Kyoko's career. Her wrestling style is brawling so she has become a very good heel. She's a big reggae fan so her outfit is usually Jamaican influenced. She did quite a few hardcore matches in Big Japan in the mid-00's with light tubes and stuff like that. Plenty of chains and other weapons. She held the NEO Tag Team Titles with Amazing Kong in 2007. Some fans may recall a match Kyoko had where she leaped from the Korakuen Hall balcony and broke Kayoko Haruyama's ribs with a double foot stomp. Kyoko had a good run with the Revolution Amandora heel group. It disbanded when Atsuko Emoto retired last year and Kyoko took some time off. She still wrestles but has been training at the Sakaguchi Family Dojo preparing for her MMA debut. Debuting in MMA at 34 is not ideal. Of course Megumi Yabushita is a women's MMA pioneer who is simply not as good as she used to be. Her record is 19-18 and she lost to Sara Kaufman in April. I watched that fight. It was just sad to see Megumi perform that poorly. She still wrestles mostly for JWP. She's always done both MMA and pro wrestling. Obviously Kyoko Kimura is an unknown as a fighter. We'll see how she does.