Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Ham Seo Hee vs Ayaka Hamasaki

Here's the match video of Ham Seo Hee vs Ayaka Hamasaki from today's RIZIN show in Japan. This is for Ayaka's RIZIN Super Atomweight Championship. It's been a while since these two have fought. Ham has improved a lot in those years. She could probably still be in the UFC if she wanted. But she can make more money fighting at home in Korea. She is the current Road FC Atomweight Champion. At age 37, Ayaka may be slowing down a bit. I thought her win over Jinh Yu Frey was a snoozefest. This match is three rounds. And keep in mind the judging is for the whole fight, not by the round like we do here. It's a close fight. I scored round one 10-9 for Ayaka. I thought she scored more with her jab and Ham seemed to have trouble finding her range. Ayaka gets a takedown in round two. But she makes the mistake of allowing Ham to apply a triangle. Though it was never close to a submission, Ham landed punches to the head. Ayaka needed to get out of it. It looked bad. So I scored it 10-9 for Ham. Ham seemed to break Ayaka's nose early in round three. Later on in the round, Ayaka got one of those dreaded headlock takedowns. Though Ayaka landed punches to the head, she was stuck because if she tries to advance her position, she could give up her back. So she rode it out to the end. I scored the round 10-9 for Ayaka because of the control. But I thought Ayaka needed to take a risk to get a decisive win. That's been a problem in Ayaka's recent fights. She's playing it safe. I think poor decisions cost her the fight as the judges scored it for Ham Seo Hee by split decision. It was close so a rematch is likely in the cards. The fight was OK but I didn't think either fighter was aggressive enough for me. Enjoy the video!