WINDY Tomomi announces retirement

WINDY Tomomi

At a press conference held today, WINDY Tomomi announced her retirement plans. This was announced on the PANCRASE website on Monday. Her retirement match will be on the Mar. 11 Differ Ariake show and her opponent will be JEWELS fighter Saori Ishioka. WINDY started out in kickboxing in 1999 and switched to MMA in 2002. For years, Hisae Watanabe was her training partner at PANCRASE. WINDY's record is 17-13-1. Obviously with her kickboxing background, she has been one of the most powerful strikers in women's MMA. But she has always been vulnerable on the ground. She's always going to give a good accounting of herself. But that record won't attract promoters. WINDY said she has been thinking about retirement for the last six months. Her last fight was a win over Sadie Manhoef on the July 23 PANCRASE show. She figures she's 35 years old and in good health. She's not injured right now. The time is right to get out while she's still healthy. When one of her pals at PANCRASE recently retired, she decided to retire too. She wanted to fight a younger fighter in her retirement match to pass the torch. And despite the fact that Ishioka has an 11-7 record and has been fighting since 2007, she's still only 24. Her last fight was a loss to Yuka Tsuji on the July 9 JEWELS show. She trains at Zendokai in Yokohama. So I expect this karate girl to keep the fight standing. The fight is contracted for 52.2kg and is scheduled for two five minute rounds. WINDY didn't say what she will do after retirement but it would not surprise me if she continued to work at PANCRASE as a strike trainer.