MIZUKI wins Girls S-Cup

MIO, RENA, MIZUKI

Things turned out exactly the way SHOOT BOXING owner Takeshi Caesar wanted on today's Girls S-Cup show at Yamano Hall. MIZUKI won the Girls S-Cup and RENA won her match. So now I expect we will see fans clamoring for a showdown between these two. But MIZUKI's dance card is very full so I don't know how that will happen. The truth is that showdown could have happened today. But for unknown reasons, Caesar chose to leave RENA and VV Mei out of the Girls S-Cup tournament. So if you throw them along with Lorena Klijn into the tournament, it's a much bigger deal. By having RENA vs Lorena as a special attraction, he risked taking attention away from the Girls S-Cup. Fortunately, MIZUKI didn't disappoint. She breezed through her first round match over veteran kickboxer Jet Izumi. BTW, just because Izumi is a veteran doesn't mean she's any good. She had a little more trouble with MMA fighter Miyo Yoshida in round two but she won by unanimous decision. Meanwhile, Ai Takahashi won by guillotine choke over Taiwanese fighter Chen Wei-Ting in round. But Takahashi had trouble with Rio Kamikaze in the second round. This is someone she has beaten before and she shouldn't have trouble with her. As the bout progressed, Takahashi got tired and Kamikaze seemed to get stronger. After three rounds, the judges scored it a draw and it went an extra round. The time it takes to announce the result allows Takahashi to catch her breath and she wins round four. How convenient. As you can tell, I am not a big fan of the extra round as it seems to be used conveniently when Caesar isn't getting the result he wants. It's time to get rid of the extra rounds and force judges to make a decision. But sometimes Caesar doesn't want a decision. In the tournament final, MIZUKI started out slow but picked it up in the second round and won by unanimous decision. Afterwards, Takahashi hinted at retirement and Caesar said he would convince her to stay. In RENA vs Lorena, Lorena swung for the fences. She landed some but missed a lot. RENA is a good counterpuncher and she used Lorena's wildness to keep things close. So the judges scored it a draw and RENA picked things up in the extra round and won. So again, Caesar gets the decision he wants. As expected, MIO won the JKS48 tournament. She knocked out her opponent in the final. And VV Mei won easily over kickboxer Chihiro who was a late replacement. Congratulations to MIZUKI for winning the Girls S-Cup. But I still have this nagging feeling this could have made a bigger splash.