Rin Nakai Moves To 8-0 At GCM: Valkyrie 7Unbeaten prospect Rin Nakai moved her mixed martial arts record to a perfect 8-0 on Sunday at Greatest Common Multiple’s all-female Valkyrie 7 event in Tokyo, Japan. She submitted Mayumi “Super Benkei” Aoki in the first round of their Valkyrie Open-Weight Grand Prix semi-final bout.

Continuing her move up from the 125-pound division, Nakai weighed in at 144.5 pounds for the open-weight fight and dominated the brief bout with Aoki before securing an armbar late in the first round. She will now face Mizuho Sato in the finals of the tournament at Valkyrie 8 in November.

 

Aoki opened the main event bout with kicks, but Nakai caught one and promptly took her down. She moved to side-control, but Aoki regained half-guard and Nakai began to work for an armbar. Nakai isolated one of Aoki’s arms and landed punches, then moved to full mount. She followed with more strikes from the top, then spun into an armbar. Aoki scrambled and nearly escaped, but Nakai maintained her grip and secured the tap at 2:40 of the first round.

In the other tournament semi-final, Mizuho Sato advanced on with a Unanimous Decision victory over Michiko Takeda. Sato scored a takedown in the first round and landed effective strikes from the top, then controlled much of the latter two rounds en route to a clear-cut decision win. The victory sets up a rematch with Nakai, who submitted Sato with a Kimura at Valkyrie 4 on February 11th. Sato has won four of her last six fights.

The third and final mixed martial arts bout on the card saw Ayame “Iris” Miura submit the much more experienced Mika “Hari” Harigai with a scarf hold armlock just 49 seconds into the fight. Miura took Harigai down early in the fight near the cage and secured a scarf hold from side-control. She quickly locked up Harigai’s arm, forcing a hasty tap. Miura improves her record to an impressive 3-0, while Harigai falls to 6-21-1.

 

Valkyrie 7 MMA Results:

– Rin Nakai defeated Mayumi “Super Benkei” Aoki by Submission (Armbar) at 2:40 of round one. She improves to 8-0-0 and advances to the finals of the Valkyrie Open-Weight Grand Prix.

– Mizuho Sato defeated Michiko Takeda by Unanimous Decision after three 3:00 rounds. She improves to 6-4-0 and advances to the finals of the Valkyrie Open-Weight Grand Prix.

– Ayame “Iris” Miura defeated Mika “Hari” Harigai by Submission (Scarf Hold Armlock) at 0:49 of round one. She improves to 3-0-0.

 

 

(Photo Credit: Valkyrie)

  1. […] to the finals of the inaugural Valkyrie Open-Weight Grand Prix with victories this past weekend at Valkyrie 7. Nakai submitted Mayumi “Super Benkei” Aoki in the first round, while Sato earned a […]