Ayaka Hamasaki vacates DEEP JEWELS Lightweight Championship

Mika Nagano, Emi Fujino, Yasuko Mogi, MIZUKI, Emi Tomimatsu

Today's supposed rebirth of JEWELS as DEEP JEWELS at Shinjuku FACE wasn't all that notable except for one announcement. Ayaka Hamasaki announced that she will vacate her DEEP JEWELS Lightweight Championship due to injury. It's well known that Ayaka has had trouble with her left knee for the last couple of years. Obviously it's not getting any better and one would think that she will have surgery. Who knows what the result will be? At the very least, she will be on the shelf for a year. That's why she had to give up the title. DEEP JEWELS announced a title tournament will begin on the Nov. 4 Shinjuku FACE shoe featuring Emi Fujino, Mika Nagano, MIZUKI and Emi Tomimatsu. The tournament final date is to be announced. This announcement became an issue when Emi Fujino faced Korean kickboxer Song Kyung Hyo. It should have been an easy match for Fujino but she had trouble with Song in round one when she got dropped by a right hand. Fujino came back and won with a rear naked choke in round two. DEEP JEWELS matchmaker Shigeru Saeki was worried after the first round. But he was relieved when Fujino won. Fujino admitted she was unhappy with her performance. It seems like she was convinced the fight would be easy and didn't prepare mentally for a fight. Big mistake. Mika Nagano easily won her fight over the retiring Betiko and MIZUKI lost a grappling match to teen grappling whiz Rikako Yuasa. In the other big match on this show, Sadae Manhoef won by split decision over Celine Haga. Sadae gets a shot at Ham Seo Hee's DEEP JEWELS Featherweight Championship. The problem is that Sadae missed weight by two pounds. The penalty was two yellow cards. She is DQd if she gets a third yellow card. Like that would ever happen. The appropriate penalty would have had Sadae not eligible for the title shot. Of course Saeki would have had to delay the title match. It looks like Sadae Manhoef got away with missing weight. Other matches included Yasuko Tamada over Yukiko Seki by unanimous decision, Masako Yoshida over Satomi Takano by unanimous decision, MIYOKO over Happy Fukuko by unanimous decision, Amiba over Yasuko Mogi by split decision, Megumi Sugimoto over Takumi Umehara by unanimous decision and Sachiko Fujimori over Sumire Takahashi by rear naked choke. Saeki admitted afterwards that the card was not stacked. If you are going to sell DEEP JEWELS as a rebirth of women's MMA, you can't keep booking the same old crap. And that's what he did. He also said he is still against full ground and pound in DEEP JEWELS. But he has allowed it because the demand is there and it helps fighters prepare for overseas fights. Those are the words of an old fart.