On Monday night, three-time Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup Champion Rena Kubota picked up her eighth straight win at Shoot Boxing 2013: “Tomohiro Oikawa Retirement Event” in Osaka, Japan. Kubota stopped short-notice replacement opponent Yuri Kim in the late stages of the opening round.
Elsewhere on the card, Kubota’s protégé, Mio Tsumura, earned a Majority Decision win over Chihiro Kira. At ACCEL vol.26 in nearby Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan, 16-year-old ACCEL Vassilis women’s kickboxing champion Chihiro Imoto retained her title with a narrow decision victory over Haruka Hirota.
Kubota (24-5-1 SB/KB) took the fight to Kim (0-2-0 SB) right away with a front kick to the face and powerful leg kicks. Kim, who stepped into the fight on one day’s notice in place of Jiwaen Lee, turtled in the corner and Kubota punished her with hard punches for a standing eight count. Kim was allowed to continue, but Kubota swarmed on her again with more punches and Kim’s corner threw in the towel to stop the fight, giving Kubota a quick and emphatic TKO victory at the 2:40 mark of round one.
The popular Kubota has won each of her past eight fights and she is one of Shoot Boxing’s top stars.
Tsumura (11-1-0 SB) had a tougher fight on her hands in her bout against Kira (5-3-1 SB/KB), who was looking to avenge her sister’s loss to Tsumura in August. The opening two rounds were very even and neither fighter landed anything significant until late in the second stanza when Kira began to score with combinations and Tsumura replied with single power punches. Kira landed front kicks in the final round, but Tsumura was aggressive with her punches and she scored with quick flurries to win the round.
One judge scored the close fight a Draw. The remaining two both had it for Tsumura, who walked away with a competitive Majority Decision victory. The 18-year-old two-time Shoot Boxing JKS48 tournament winner has won four straight fights since suffering her lone career defeat against J-Girls Mini Flyweight Champion Momi in February.
In one of her toughest bouts in the past two years, Imoto (135-18-1 amateur; 5-0-0 pro) kept her perfect professional record intact with a come-from-behind victory over Hirota in a closely-contested fight. Hirota held a slight edge in the exchanges during the first three rounds and the fight went to the scorecards. One judge saw the fight 29-28 for Hirota, but the remaining two had it 28-28 apiece for a Majority Draw, which forced an extension round to determine a winner.
Imoto rallied in the fourth and final two-minute round and she landed some nice combinations as Hirota began to slow down. Imoto’s late-fight offence was enough to earn her the round and the fight with a trio of 10-9 scores. At just 16 years of age, Imoto is one of the most experienced female kickboxers in the world. She remains the first and only ACCEL Vassilis Women’s Champion.
(Photo Credit: Shoot Boxing)