RIZIN held a press conference today to announce RENA vs Andy Nguyen is the first match scheduled for the RIZIN Atomweight tournament. The first round will be Oct. 15 at Marin Messe Fukuoka. So we all know who RENA is. The whole point of this tournament is to make her a star. The reason Andy is the opponent is she's been in RIZIN before. She beat Miyuu Yamamoto on the Dec. 31 RIZIN show. It's important that Japanese fans have already seen her win. My guess is she will be the best foreign fighter that will be brought in for this tournament. Not that she's anything special. Andy is 35 years old from Louisiana. Her record is 5-3 and she usually fights for King Of The Cage. She's also attractive which is important in attracting the usual dirty old men who attend women's MMA shows. So if she's the best foreigner in this tournament, why is RIZIN doing this match in the first round? Shouldn't it be saved for the final? Obviously if they were to do that, there's no guarantee the match would happen. It's not unusual for Japanese promoters to do a match that they think fans want to see in round one. The risk is that the rest of the tournament becomes a foregone conclusion and RENA's win of the tournament becomes anticlimactic. Obviously I will reserve judgement until they announce the other participants. We already know that Miyuu will be in the tournament. And she's already lost to RENA so she wants revenge. And the winner of Saori Ishioka vs Kanna Asakura on the upcoming DEEP JEWELS show will get a spot in the tournament. I'll have a better idea when RIZIN announces all the brackets. But I will say this. Andy will need to finish RENA. There's no way Japanese judges will award her a decision.
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