RIZIN held a press conference this morning to announce the brackets for the RIZIN Super Atomweight tournament. The first round will be Oct. 15 at Marine Messe Fukuoka. The brackets are what I expected. I've seen some suggestions about who should be in the tournament to make it more competitive. The most obvious name I have seen brought up is VV Mei. Of course I would have liked to have seen her in this tournament. But I didn't expect it. RIZIN doesn't want this tournament to be competitive. They want to crown RENA queen. And you're a fool if you think anything else. The poster tells the whole story. Unless something weird happens, RENA will win. I see one fighter who may be competitive and the brackets are set up so she is in the final. It was announced a couple of weeks ago that RENA will face Andy Nguyen in round one. The only way RENA can lose is if she screws up and forgets she is doing MMA. That has happened once already. Since that announcement, Andy lost by unanimous decision to Melissa Karagianis on the Aug. 12 KOTC show in Niagara Falls, NY. Her record is now 5-4. At least she has sex appeal. Miyuu Yamamoto was at the press conference. She will face Irene Rivera in round one. Since Miyuu won her last fight, she's riding high and hopes to face RENA in round two. Dream on baby. Irene is not a great fighter but she has more experience. She was even on TUF 23. Irene is 24 years old from Barcelona, Spain. her record is 6-4. Neither of them can beat RENA. Miyuu winning would be more fun for the crowd. The third match will have Alyssa Garcia vs Maria Oliveira. Alyssa is 23 years old. She trains with Josh Barnett in California. Her record is 3-3 but she beat Kanna Asakura in RIZIN last December. We could see a rematch in this tournament. Maria Oliveira is 20 years old from Brazil. Her record is 9-2 which sounds good but she has never fought outside Brazil. She hasn't fought anyone notable. The kicker here is she trains at PRVT. You know who else trains there? Jessica Andrade. Of course Jessica will fight Claudia Gadelha on the Sept. 23 UFC show in Japan. So I would not be surprised if Jessica is in Maria's corner. In the fourth fight, Saori Ishioka vs Kanna Asakura will fight on the upcoming DEEP JEWELS show for this slot. I don't like either of them but for RIZIN, I think they would prefer Kanna win to set up a possible rematch against Alyssa and maybe even face RENA in the final. A lot of things would have to go right for that to happen. The opponent is 22 year old Sylwia Juskiewicz from Lodz, Poland. Her record is 6-4 but she is currently on a four fight win streak for Ladies Fight Night in Poland. She also is active in kickboxing. The one problem I see is she has never fought at Atomweight. She usually fights at Strawweight. This will be her first fight outside Europe. So she's unproven. As I said, this is what I expected. RENA is the star and that's who RIZIN wants to push.
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