Deep Jewels Strawweight Champion Mizuki Inoue looks to rebound from a pair of close defeats inside the Invicta FC cage when she defends her title on August 29th at Deep Jewels 9 in Tokyo, Japan. Inoue faces off against familiar foe Emi “Kamikaze Angel” Fujino for a third time on the card.
Deep Jewels officials announced the title bout this week. The fighters first clashed in July 2010 when a 15-year-old Inoue made a successful pro kickboxing debut by upsetting Fujino. She earned her second win over the veteran standout in November 2013 under MMA rules at Deep Jewels 2.
Inoue (8-4-0) remains one of Japan’s top female fighters today in spite of her recent setbacks abroad for Invicta FC. After defeating Fujino in their Deep Jewels 2 rematch, Inoue was controversially disqualified for missing weight ahead of what was intended to be a Deep Jewels title fight against Emi Tomimatsu in February 2014. She avenged the loss in August by submitting Tomimatsu to claim the Deep Jewels Strawweight Championship, and now plans to return to her winning ways after dropping Invicta FC decisions to undefeated opponents Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Alexa Grasso in recent months.
Fujino (16-8-0) has posted victories in five of her past seven fights, with the lone defeats coming against Inoue and former WSOF champ Jessica “Jag” Aguilar. The 11-year pro has been a contender throughout her career, but championship titles have remained just outside of Fujino’s reach. She came closest to capturing title gold in late 2012 when she took then-Jewels champion Ayaka Hamasaki to a razor-thin decision after three competitive rounds. Fujino has won three straight fights, including a notable victory over ex-Deep Jewels champion Tomimatsu, and she now looks to avenge a past loss to Inoue.
Deep Jewels 9 takes place on August 29th at Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan. The caged event features a Deep Jewels Bantamweight Championship rematch between Takayo Hashi and Ji Yeon Kim.
(Photo Credit: Deep Jewels)
If Inoue loses this one, I really don’t know what happens to her. Her manager had her in UFC by fall of last year. Now she seems light years from that. She is still so young, but so much of the hype and shine is gone.
not sure man. She lost to 2 amazing prospects, and looked so much better in each loss. After the hamasaki fight where she was outgrappled like hell, she showed some visible grappling improvements. After the loss to karolina where she played too safe (although i actually though she won) she started countering more jabbing more, using more takedowns (of course, against alexa grasso, in my opnion the second best striker in the SW division) it was not enough. Now, after the grasso loss, where she tried to only box a kickboxer and got owned in the process, i am curious if she will start using her legs more