All quarterfinal bouts in the second annual Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup 53.5 tournament are now set for this Saturday night at the 2013 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup Japan Midsummer Festival in Tokyo. In Block A, Rio Kamikaze takes on Matsukuma Kikukawa and Ai Takahashi faces Wei-Ting Chen.
2012 champ Mizuki Inoue, who won the inaugural 53.5kg Girls S-Cup one year ago, returns to defend her crown on Saturday. Inoue faces “Jet” Izumi Noguchi in one of two Block B quarterfinals. Miyo Yoshida battles the only woman to have defeated Inoue in shoot boxing, Kanako Oka, in the other.
Kamikaze (7-4-2 SB/KB; pictured above), real name Rio Chiyomori, entered the first Girls S-Cup 53.5 tournament in June 2012 but dropped a one-sided Unanimous Decision to Takahashi. The 19-year-old rebounded with a Majority Decision win over Seira Aragaki in a non-tournament bout on August 25th. Her opponent, Kikukawa (0-0-0 SB), makes her shoot boxing debut on Saturday’s card.
Takahashi (15-4-0 SB/KB), the former Shoot Boxing Japan Women’s Flyweight Champion, advanced to the finals of the 2012 Girls S-Cup 53.5 tournament by outpointing Kamikaze. The win set up an August rematch between Takahashi and Inoue, who had upset the veteran earlier in the year. Inoue defeated Takahashi for a second time to become the inaugural 53.5kg champion. Takahashi has since stopped three straight opponents and she now faces Chen (0-0-0 SB), an experienced boxer from Taiwan.
Inoue (4-1-0 SB) dropped a close decision to Oka in her May 2010 pro debut, but the gifted 18-year-old has since become one of the world’s top female shoot boxers. After she upset Takahashi in February 2012, Inoue advanced to last year’s tournament final by stopping Mina on April 13th. She defeated Takahashi by six-round decision to win the 53.5kg tournament title mere days after her 18th birthday.
Noguchi (1-1-0 SB) has competed in just two shoot boxing fights to date, but the former J-Girls Mini Flyweight Champion has more than a decade of experience in boxing, kickboxing and MMA. Among her most notable wins is a 2005 kickboxing victory over future Deep Women’s Lightweight Champion Hisae Watanabe. Noguchi’s most recent shoot boxing bout came in February 2012 when she lost a Unanimous Decision to Asuka Inoue.
Yoshida (7-2-0 SB/KB) entered the main 50.0kg Girls S-Cup tournament in 2011 and defeated fellow MMA and kickboxing veteran “Windy” Tomomi Sunaba in the quarterfinals, but she suffered a quick and decisive TKO loss to eventual champion Erika Kamimura in the semi-final round. Yoshida then put together a four-fight winning streak that was snapped by Lorena “Lady Pitbull” Klijn on April 20th.
Oka (3-3-0 SB) rebounded from a decision loss to Megumi Yabushita in her pro debut with back-to-back wins including a key victory over Mizuki Inoue. She fell to Erika Kamimura in the 2011 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup quarterfinal round and is 1-1 in shoot boxing competition since then. An upset win over Yoshida would set up a rematch between Oka and Inoue in this year’s semi-finals.
In addition to the Girls S-Cup 53.5 quarterfinal matchups, two additional bouts have been confirmed for Saturday’s preliminary card. Nako Otsuka takes on Rena Matsuda, and Tomomi Souda squares off against Akari “Eneos” Nakamura.
Two late changes have also been made to Saturday’s card. A planned 50kg bout between “V.V” Mei Yamaguchi and Du Peiling has been scrapped due to a Peiling injury. Yamaguchi now faces Chihiro Kira at 49kg. In one of two JKS48 high school girls’ semi-finals, Anna Murayama has stepped in to replace Michi Nakamura, who was injured in a traffic accident. Murayama faces Yuuki Kira.
The 2013 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup Japan Midsummer Festival takes place this Saturday, August 3rd, at Yamano Hall in the Yoyogi district of Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.
2013 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup 53.5 Final:
– Winner of Semi-Final #1 vs Winner of Semi-Final #2
Non-Tournament Bout:
– Rena Kubota vs Lorena “Lady Pitbull” Klijn
2013 Shoot Boxing JKS48 High School Girls’ Tournament Final:
– Winner of Tsumura-Comachi vs Winner of Murayama-Kira
2013 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup 53.5 Semi-Final #2:
– Winner of Quarterfinal #3 vs Winner of Quarterfinal #4
2013 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup 53.5 Semi-Final #1:
– Winner of Quarterfinal #1 vs Winner of Quarterfinal #2
Non-Tournament Bout (49.0kg):
– “V.V” Mei Yamaguchi vs Chihiro Kira
2013 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup 53.5 Quarterfinal #4:
– Mizuki Inoue vs “Jet” Izumi Noguchi
2013 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup 53.5 Quarterfinal #3:
– Miyo Yoshida vs Kanako Oka
2013 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup 53.5 Quarterfinal #2:
– Rio Kamikaze vs Matsukuma Kikukawa
2013 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup 53.5 Quarterfinal #1:
– Ai Takahashi vs Wei-Ting Chen
2013 Shoot Boxing JKS48 High School Girls’ Tournament Semi-Final #2:
– Mio Tsumura vs Comachi
2013 Shoot Boxing JKS48 High School Girls’ Tournament Semi-Final #1:
– Anna Murayama vs Yuuki Kira
Non-Tournament Bout:
– Nako Otsuka vs Rena Matsuda
Non-Tournament Bout:
– Tomomi Souda vs Akari “Eneos” Nakamura
(Photo Credit: Shoot Boxing)