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| Rin Nakai at today's press conference |
PANCRASE held a press conference today to announce Rin Nakai's first Queen of PANCRASE title defense will be May 19 at Differ Ariake. The challenger is Brenda Gonzales from New Mexico. She trains at FIT NHB with UFC fighter Tim Means. She is the current King Of The Cage Junior Flyweight Champion. She is also active as a boxer. Brenda's MMA record is 4-0 with three TKOs. She won her latest fight over Elsie Zwicker by second round TKO on the Dec. 1 KOTC show in Colorado. This is a big step up in competition for her as she has never fought anyone with a decent record. Her boxing record is 2-1 and she just lost to Amanda Crespin on Feb. 1 in New Mexico. So obviously there is a big experience gap. And the other thing is all of Brenda's fights have been at 125lb and this fight will be at 135. She's taller than Rin but who isn't. At the press conference, Rin said she has watched Brenda on video and believes Brenda is a strong puncher. But Rin also believes her own ground game is much stronger and that's what she will use to win. I think she expects to have a strength advantage. I agree with her.
I have to agree. I think Brenda has no chance here.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought, do you think Rin should be fighting a better class of opponent than this?
What she needs to do is leave Japan and move to the US to train. But that won't happen as long as she is under contract to PANCRASE. She is a star there and they will bring in opponents for her. There is no competition for her in Japan.
ReplyDeleteShe comes across as being very happy under contract to PANCRASE and maybe equally as happy for them to bring in "ordinary" opponents like Brenda so it's hard to know what level she is at.
DeleteHow do you feel she would fare against the top 5 in UFC at 135lbs right now?
Her problem is she is short. She is 5'1". But she is stronger than people think. Her choices in Japan are limited and the guy who owns Pancrase is loaded. She's staying there unless someone forks over a lot of cash for her to train in the US. Invicta has already attempted to sign her. She turned them down. She will not accept a one off fight in the US. She's not stupid like HIROKO.
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