RIZIN Women's Grand Prix to begin Oct. 15

Shinju Nozawa-Auclair, Sheena Starr

RIZIN held a press conference to announce several things. But the most important announcement is that the Women's Grand Prix will begin Oct. 15 at Marine Messe in Fukuoka. The weight for this will be 49kg which is Atomweight. Of course they have already announced that RENA will be in this tournament. And as I said when this was announced, she's the favourite to win regardless of who else is involved. I expect gaijin fighters to be involved. But with one possible exception, I'm not expecting anyone good. Miyuu Yamamoto will be in this tournament and she is also fighting Cassie Robb on the July 30 RIZIN show. But she's on the schneid and I don't know if she can beat Cassie. It was also announced that Saori Ishioka will face Kanna Asakura on the Aug. 26 DEEP JEWELS show at Shinjuku FACE. The winner will be in the RIZIN tournament. Saori is a DEEP JEWELS veteran. At one time she was a top young prospect. Now she's 29 years with a 15-10 record and married with a child. I think it's fair to say her fighting career has been disappointing. Kanna is 19 years old with a 7-2 record. She's 1-1 in RIZIN. For me, a red flag came up when I found out her dad trains her and manages her career. It explains matchmaking decisions he made to have her fight women old enough to be her grandmother. That means she wasn't prepared when she was booked in a competitive fight. I'd like to see her leave her dad and get objective training elsewhere. He's way too involved to be objective. I don't think either fighter is a match for RENA. RIZIN also announced that Shinju Nozawa-Auclair will face Sheena Starr. Both are making pro MMA debuts. Shinju is a big deal because her mother Naoko Nozawa is a famous actress in Japan. Shinju is also very attractive. Though she looks Japanese, Shinju was born in New York and she currently lives and trains in Michigan. She is 23 years old and her amateur record is 2-1. I don't know if she's any good. At the press conference, they sold Sheena as being a lot more experienced. What they didn't say is her amateur record is 3-17. She's experienced at losing. And she's also from Michigan. What a coincidence...NOT! This fight is at 52kg but I expect Shinju will be in the Grand Prix if she wins as expected. RIZIN also announced that Gabi Garcia will face Oksana Gagloeva on July 31. Oksana is a 24 year old Russian from the same camp as another Gabi Garcia opponent Anna Maliukova. I guess they grow them big there. Supposedly Oksana is a boxing, grappling and arm wrestling champ. I don't know how much of that is true. It probably doesn't matter. And some are making a big deal out of Gabi facing Megumi Yabushita at the upcoming Shoot Boxing show. For one thing, Shoot Boxing is not kickboxing. It's kickboxing mixed with standing MMA. Yabushita may be an MMA pioneer. But she hasn't won a fight since 2010 and she should only be doing pro wrestling at this point. And I remember a couple of years ago Gabi turned down a fight with Yabushita because she didn't want to do freak shows. Of course now she's changed her mind. She balked when Sakikabara wanted her to fight 53 year old pro wrestling legend Shinobu Kandori. He convinced her that Japanese fans want to see that kind of nostalgiac freak show. She's OK with it now which is why RIZIN is the best place for Gabi. If she was anywhere else, she would be sitting around waiting for fights that never happen. She still hasn't fought anyone decent and I don't think she ever will. Freak show matches are Gabi Garcia's bread and butter now. A few years ago not even Japanese promoters wanted to do freak shows. I guess it's OK to do them now.