Rin Nakai to return to Flyweight on July 24 PANCRASE show

Rin Nakai, Emiko Raika

Rin Nakai's recent loss to Leslie Smith was the final fight on her UFC contract. At the end of last year, she suggested on her blog that she was thinking about dropping to Flyweight. A couple of weeks ago, PANCRASE announced that she would do exactly that on the July 24 Differ Ariake show. Today they announced her opponent. This show will air on UFC Fight Pass. What most fans probably don't know is that Rin fought at 125lb early in her career. She was 5-0. Her last fight at that weight was a TKO win over WINDY Tomomi on the Dec. 7, 2008 PANCRASE show. Then she took time off and when she returned in Feb. 2010 to Valkyrie, she fought at 135lb. She should be OK fighting at 125. There has been talk that she might drop to 115 but I don't think she has weighed 115 since she was a 12 year old gymnast. So I don't see her doing that. Her opponent is Emiko Raika. Emiko held several boxing championships until her January 2014 retirement. Then she got into MMA training and she now has a 2-3 MMA record. Of course the problem is Emiko is 40 years old with minimal MMA experience. Her boxing experience doesn't necessarily transfer to MMA especially at an advanced age. Her most recent fight was a loss to Brogan Walker on the Dec. 4 PXC show in Guam. Brogan is from Guam. Rin is a big step up in competition for Emiko and it's going to be an uphill climb for her. She hasn't done well against lesser competition. PANCRASE also announced that Syuri will return on the July 24 show. I will let you all know when her opponent is announced.