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| Naoko Omuro, Yasuko Mogi, Hisae Watanabe |
JEWELS announced today that retired fighter Hisae Watanabe will be the opponent for Naoko Omuro's retirement match on the Dec. 15 Differ Ariake. This will be an exhibition match. It is not a real fight. Hisae started out as a kickboxer training at Pancrase with her longtime training partner WINDY Tomomi. Hisae transitioned to MMA and won the 2004 Golden Muscles tournament that aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System. To date, this is the only Women's MMA event to air on one of the major broadcast networks in Japan. Hisae became a star and had a pretty good run at Smackgirl. She is one of the few female fighters who had real knockout punching power. She faced Omuro twice and won both fights. Hisae got married and retired in 2008. After having a baby, she returned to kickboxing and started a feud with SHOOT BOXING poster girl RENA. They were supposed to fight in Apr. 2010 but a broken hand forced RENA to bow out. But they did fight at the 2010 Girls S-Cup and RENA won by TKO. We haven't seen Hisae since then. She never did return to MMA though that was the plan. She never officially retired but unless this taste lights a fire under her, Hisae Watanabe isn't expected to return to fighting. JEWELS also announced a grappling match with BJJ champ Utako Yuasa facing Amiba.
Hi Frank.
ReplyDeleteI was always a big fan of Hisae Watanabe. She's a great fighter and entertainer.
Does she still train and have you any idea what she's up to these days?
Regards
Gary
Same thing she was doing before she tried to return. She's married with a young child. Her husband is a cartoonist.
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