This year’s edition of the Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup tournament is set to take place on August 2nd at Yamano Hall in the Yoyogi district of Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. The 2014 Girls S-Cup includes many of the promotion’s top stars including three-time Girls S-Cup tournament champion Rena Kubota.

Among the other participants confirmed for next month’s Shoot Boxing card is Kubota’s teammate and protégé, two-time Shoot Boxing JKS48 champion Mio Tsumura. Former Shoot Boxing Japan Women’s Flyweight Champion Ai Takahashi, “V.V” Mei Yamaguchi and Madoka Jinnai will also compete.

Kubota (25-5-1 SB/KB) has been one of Shoot Boxing’s biggest stars since she won the inaugural Girls S-Cup tournament in 2009. She repeated that feat in 2010 and 2012 and now brings a nine-fight winning streak into this year’s tournament. Kubota celebrated her 23rd birthday three days ago and 2014 has thus far been a good year for the popular striker. She will look to keep her string of impressive victories going when she returns to the ring alongside other top stars next month.

Tsumura (12-1-0 SB) is following in her mentor’s footsteps and is quickly becoming one of the brightest prospects on the Shoot Boxing roster. In 2012, she won the first Shoot Boxing JKS48 high school girls’ tournament and she became a two-time JKS winner this past year. Tsumura has won five in a row since suffering her lone professional defeat against J-Girls champion Momi in February 2013.

Takahashi (20-5-0 SB/KB) and J-Girls Bantamweight Champion Jinnai (15-5-0 KB) engaged in an action-packed four-round kickboxing bout this past month that ended with Takahashi taking home a razor-thin Split Decision victory. The top-ranked strikers could renew their rivalry should they find themselves on opposite sides of the Girls S-Cup bracket next month. Takahashi is a two-time Girls S-Cup finalist, but she has come up short in both tournament final bouts thus far. Jinnai makes her shoot boxing debut and will need to adapt to the use of throws and standing submissions.

Former Valkyrie MMA champ Yamaguchi (8-5-0 SB) is also a two-time Girls S-Cup finalist, advancing to the championship final in 2009 and 2012. However, she was defeated by Kubota on both occasions and has focused most of her time and energy on MMA competition in recent years. Though her striking is not on the same level as some of the other Girls S-Cup participants, Yamaguchi has proven time and again that her ability to earn Shoot Points by mixing things up with throws can propel her to victory over formidable opponents in the shoot boxing ring.

Rounding out the list of confirmed participants thus far is Dutch standout Lorena “Lady Pitbull” Klijn (3-2-0 SB) and Australian kickboxer Christina Jurjevic (0-2-0 SB). Klijn has impressed during her short shoot boxing career, scoring wins over 2011 Girls S-Cup champion Erika Kamimura, Miyo Yoshida and the aforementioned Mei Yamaguchi in a rematch. She most recently dropped a very close decision to Kubota in a non-tournament bout this past August. Jurjevic remains in search of her first shoot boxing victory in Japan, but she holds multiple kickboxing titles in her home country.

The 2014 Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup takes place on August 2nd at Yamano Hall in the Yoyogi district of Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

(Photo Credits: Shoot Boxing)