Eight-Woman Featherweight Grand Prix Set For Deep Jewels 7With Deep Jewels Featherweight Champion Seo Hee Ham competing in the UFC, Deep Jewels officials have booked an eight-woman featherweight grand prix. The 48kg tournament takes place at Deep Jewels 7 on February 21st in Tokyo, Japan and features some of the promotion’s top talent.

Among those competing in the tournament is former Deep Jewels Interim Lightweight Champion Emi Tomimatsu, who drops down to 106 pounds. She joins former Valkyrie Featherweight Champion “V.V” Mei Yamaguchi as an early tournament favourite. In a reserve bout, Miyoko Kusaka faces Pan Hui.

Tomimatsu (8-9-0) captured the Deep Jewels interim title in February when her opponent, Mizuki Inoue, failed to make weight for their championship fight. Inoue avenged the controversial loss by submitting Tomimatsu in an August rematch, but Tomimatsu rebounded with a victory in her Road FC debut three months later. On New Year’s Eve, she faced off against recent WSOF title challenger Emi “Kamikaze Angel” Fujino at Deep: “Dream Impact 2014,” but Fujino prevailed via Unanimous Decision after two rounds and Tomimatsu immediately announced plans to drop down in weight.

Yamaguchi (12-8-1) was once one of Japan’s top-ranked female fighters, but a pair of contentious Split Decision losses under the Pacific Xtreme Combat banner halted her forward momentum. She moved down to 106 pounds this past year and made a successful Deep Jewels debut by choking out veteran journeywoman Yukiko Seki at Deep Jewels 4. She most recently faced one of her toughest opponents to date, former Jewels Lightweight Queen Champion Ayaka Hamasaki, and suffered a Unanimous Decision loss at Deep: “Dream Impact 2014.”

The remainder of the eight-woman tournament field includes Tomo Maesawa (4-4-0), Ayaka Miura (1-1-0), Satomi “Sarami” Takano (4-5-0), Mina Kurobe (4-0-0), and experienced veterans Yukiko Seki (13-24-0) and Masako Yoshida (18-20-5). Though not yet as well-known as Tomimatsu or Yamaguchi, Kurobe enters the tournament with momentum on her side and with victories over three of the other participants. She has defeated Maesawa, Yoshida and Takano in succession, and is a dark horse entrant in next month’s grand prix.

In the event of an illness or injury, a tournament reserve bout has been established. The winner will take the place of any tournament participant who is unable to continue beyond the opening rounds. The reserve bout pits grappling specialist Kusaka (5-8-1) against Chinese standout Hui (1-0-0), who earned an impressive win in her Deep Jewels debut in November.

Deep Jewels 7 takes place on February 21st at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo, Japan.

 

  1. Pretty sure Kusaka’s opponent is different

  2. Her name is Pan Hui. She is Chinese, but is married to a Japanese man and all of the Japanese media sites list her Japanese name instead. Pan Hui is her birth name.