Reid vs Yoshida Confirmed For October 24th

by Robert Sargent

Following weeks of uncertainty, former two-time women's boxing champion and rising MMA star Elena "Babydoll" Reid has confirmed that she will face Japanese veteran Masako Yoshida in a title fight at Extreme Beatdown on October 24th.

Undefeated thus far in her growing mixed martial arts career, Reid will look to add MMA gold to her already impressive collection of world title belts.

The event, which was originally scheduled for October 25th, has been moved to the 24th and takes place in New Town, North Dakota. It marks Reid's second appearance for the promotion, while Yoshida will be travelling from Japan to make her Extreme Beatdown debut.

Though early in her MMA career, Reid (3-0-0) is already touted as one of the future stars of women's MMA and has been regarded as one of the top female prospects in the sport for over a year. She has picked up stoppage victories in each of her fights, including an extremely dominant and impressive win over fellow rising star Michelle "The Karate Hottie" Waterson at an Extreme Beatdown event in April.

A former WIBA and IFBA Women's Flyweight Champion in boxing, Reid's striking is matched by few if any women in MMA. Technically sound and with incredible footwork, Reid is one of the best female boxers in the world and has opted to take on a new challenge in MMA. Still competing in both sports, Reid now looks to bring her success in boxing to her MMA career.


Yoshida (16-14-5) was once a top contender in and around the 115-pound division. Competing between 105 and 125 pounds, Yoshida picked up impressive victories over "Windy" Tomomi Sunaba and Ayumi "Edge" Saito, among others, but then ran into disaster. Losing nine straight fights, including all eight bouts in 2007, Yoshida went from a top contender to a low-level gatekeeper.

However, Yoshida has won three of her last four fights and a victory over Reid would be huge. She will have to do everything in her power to get the fight with Reid to the ground or it may mark the first time in Yoshida's career that she is stopped by strikes.


Another undefeated contender, Jessica Pene (6-0-0), had been considered as an opponent for Reid, but Pene will instead battle Freestyle Cage Fighting Women's Bantamweight Champion Angela Magana (8-3-0) at an event at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida on September 25th. That should also be an excellent fight.