Three women's matches added to Sept. 25 RIZIN show

Miyu Yamamoto, RENA

RIZIN held a press conference today to add three women's matches to their Sept. 25 show at Saitama Super Arena. Of course with RIZIN you get a liberal dose of gimmick matches. So I would say that two of the three announced matches are gimmick matches. First we have Shoot Boxing queen RENA facing Miyu Yamamoto in her MMA debut. Miyu is a walking talking gimmick. She was an amateur wrestler in the 90s making her MMA debut at age 42. And Japanese MMA legend and UFC fighter Kid Yamamoto is her brother. And her son will fight on this show. RENA is a gimmick by choice. She could be a very good MMA fighter. But she doesn't like MMA and she has admitted that she is only doing it for the money. Basically, RIZIN owner Noboyuki Sakikabara sweet talked her into trying MMA. She is still very loyal to Shoot Boxing owner Takeshi Caesar (another weasel). So though she has potential as an MMA fighter, she can't be taken seriously as long as she accepts gimmick fights like this and continues to participate in a phony sport like Shoot Boxing. And now that she is sponsored by NIKE in Japan, I expect her to continue to do exactly what she is currently doing and that's waste her potential. The second gimmick match has Brazilian heavyweight BJJ whiz Gabi Garcia facing football player Destanie Yarbrough. Football player? I guess there is a female pro football league in California. She was a track athlete (shotput) at Long Beach State. She's a big MMA fan so she decided to try that. My guess is there isn't much money in women's football. She won her debut in April. Look, they have to find big women to fight Gabi. They have to beat the bushes because there are very few around. Gabi has even said recently that she is willing to fight men. Don't give Sakikabara any ideas. So again, Gabi is a walking talking gimmick and Sakikabara has to feed her. In the third match, Kanako Murata will face Kyra Batara. Kanako is a former amateur wrestler. She was recruited to RIZIN by Olympic wrestling legend Saori Yoshida who works for RIZIN as a talent scout. Kanako's record is 3-0. Kyra will be her stiffest test to date. Her record is 5-3. She usually works for Combate Americas and she has won her last three fights. She was pulled from an upcoming match vs Lisa Ellis for this fight which is going to get much more coverage than Combate Americas. Combate Americas has big plans for Kyra but Kanako has been pretty good so far. At least this is a serious fight.