Former two-time Rizin FF Women’s Super Atomweight Champion Ayaka Hamasaki made a successful return to the cage and earned an impressive victory tonight at Rizin Fighting Federation: “Landmark Vol. 10” in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. The veteran submitted Yu Ri Shim in the 49kg co-main event.
Hamasaki, who was sidelined for most of this year due to an injury, showed no ill effects from her time away and she put forth a solid showing against former Road FC champ Shim. She used a second-round kimura to finish Shim and hopes for a quick turnaround to fight again on New Year’s Eve.
Hamasaki (25-6-0) employed a slick leg-sweep takedown to get Shim (6-5-0) down to the mat early in tonight’s co-feature bout. She worked from the top until Shim battled back to her feet, and the South Korean had success with straight right hands as the round progressed. In the final minute, she landed two quick combinations as Hamasaki circled along the cage, and momentum appeared to be on Shim’s side for the time being.
That changed in the second round, however, as Hamasaki initiated a clinch and went for a takedown. Shim was able to reverse it on the way down, and she tried to take Hamasaki’s back, but Hamasaki grabbed on to her arm in the process and rolled forward into a kimura setup. She wrenched Shim’s arm behind her back and forced Shim to tap out to the kimura at the 1:15 mark of the second round.
The win tonight was an important one for Hamasaki, who had dropped three of her past four Rizin fights including two to current champion Seika Izawa. While Hamasaki feels that she is not yet ready to take on Izawa again, she hopes to make a quick return and take another step closer to a title shot.
Ayaka Hamasaki (left) and Yu Ri Shim (right) backstage following Rizin FF: “Landmark Vol. 10.”
“[Shim] took my back, but I grabbed her wrist and I managed to set up the kimura from that,” Hamasaki recalled when speaking backstage after her win. “I’ve trained that technique for a long time and I used it to recover when she got my back after the throw. I trained for this fight with Miyuu [Yamamoto], and she was happy for me and my victory. I did not feel like I could focus well in the first round, and I need more training before I will be ready to face Seika [Izawa] again, but I can fight on New Year’s Eve.”
“I didn’t have enough training and preparation,” Shim noted backstage. “I knew that she was tough but I was really reminded of that this time during the fight. Becoming a Rizin champion is not an easy thing to earn. I feel that I need to train my jiu-jitsu more and I will focus even harder on winning moving forward. When I landed the straight punches, I felt that my striking was better than hers, but she trapped me when I tried to take her back.”