Deep Jewels Flyweight Champion Rin Nakai showcased much-improved striking and earned her 12th straight finish in tonight’s Deep Jewels 47 main event at New Pier Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Nakai stopped Haruka “Boss” Suzuki with punches during the first round of their non-title 58kg matchup.
Also on the card, Machi Fukuda took another step back toward strawweight title contention with a second-round submission victory over former Deep Jewels Microweight Champion Suwanan “Amp The Rocket” Boonsorn in the co-main event, and Mana Akagi made short work of Marina Kumagai.
Nakai (28-2-1) looked to close the distance with Suzuki (2-3-0) early in their fight tonight and she landed a right hand that caused Suzuki to lose her balance. Suzuki recovered and scored with an uppercut, but Nakai continued to move forward and she landed two more right hands followed by a left hook that sent Suzuki to the canvas. As Suzuki tried to stand back up, Nakai swarmed on her with a barrage of punches that resulted in a TKO stoppage at the 3:32 mark of the opening round as a wounded Suzuki fell forward on her face.
Tonight’s performance on the feet was one of Nakai’s best from the past five years, and a complete change from her most recent fight in May when she battled injuries and landed very few strikes in her third-round submission win against Namiko “Hime” Kawabata. Nakai was much more aggressive against Suzuki and that paid off in the form of her quick TKO win.
“I trained my striking with K-1 founder Kazuyoshi Ishii and with Kosei Yamada,” Nakai explained after her win tonight. “I felt that my left hook was effective. I would like to compete abroad, but I have not been able to make that happen. I want to fight Kana [Watanabe] because I feel that I am stronger.”
In the strawweight co-feature, Fukuda (6-2-0) caught a kick from Boonsorn (5-6-0) and took her down during the opening round, which allowed Fukuda to rack up several minutes of control time until the fighters were eventually brought back to their feet. Boonsorn blocked a head kick before the end of the round, and she opened the second stanza with a hard right cross to Fukuda’s face. Fukuda answered with a takedown and she resumed working from the top until the fighters entered a duelling leglock position. Fukuda hunted for heel hooks until she was able to secure an inverted heel hook on Boonsorn’s right leg for the tap at the 2:27 mark of the second round.
“I was glad that I could do some striking during the first round and I did not go for a takedown right away,” Fukuda noted backstage. “I had prepared some combinations that I was not able to show, so look out for those in the future. I was confident in my leglocks, but I did not want to rely solely upon them. I still want a championship, so I will fight to make that happen next year and I hope to be in Rizin again as well. [Former opponent] Arisa [Matsuda] is not fighting strong opponents, so I don’t care. I am only facing strong opposition, even just two years into my pro career.”
Rin Nakai (left) and Machi Fukuda (right) backstage following Deep Jewels 47 victories.
One of tonight’s most impressive performances came from 25-year-old Akagi (4-4-0), who steamrolled Kumagai (5-7-0) in their brief bantamweight bout. Akagi opened the fight with two takedowns, then threw Kumagai down to the mat a third time and landed on top in the scarf hold position. She trapped Kumagai in a scarf hold armlock and Kumagai immediately tapped out at the 1:08 mark. Akagi has alternated between wins and losses in every fight dating back to her amateur debut, but tonight’s victory was arguably her best to date.
Also in the bantamweight division, Momoko Saito (3-2-0, 1 NC) smothered Yurina Horiguchi (2-4-0) on the ground and ultimately finished her off with punches at the 4:14 mark of round two. Saito threatened with an arm-triangle choke in the first round after taking Horiguchi down, and then landed several punches to Horiguchi’s face. During the second round, Saito took Horiguchi down again and scored with more punches. She eventually passed to mount and dropped heavy shots to Horiguchi’s face for the TKO stoppage.
The night’s lone atomweight bout ended with Sarah (1-1-0) notching her first pro win with a narrow Split Decision verdict against Miku Yokose (0-1-0). In the first round, Yokose controlled the early grappling by taking Sarah’s back and suplexing her down, but Sarah rallied later on with punches and she knocked Yokose down with a right hook. Sarah held Yokose in a guillotine choke early in round two, then battled back to her feet. Yokose landed some solid left hands on the feet and took Sarah down late in the close fight. Two judges scored it even at 19-19, with each awarding their Must Decision to Sarah and Yokose, respectively, while the third had it 20-18 in favour of Sarah for the win.
Despite a late opponent change and a move up in weight, Princess Saaya (1-1-0) secured her first victory as a pro by submitting Harin Horii (0-1-0) with a triangle choke at the 3:10 mark of the second round at strawweight. Horii did have success with knees to Saaya’s body during clinches in the opening round, but the punching exchanges were won by Saaya. When Horii took Saaya down in the second frame, Saaya countered with a triangle choke from the bottom. She adjusted her position and tightened the choke, forcing Horii to tap out.
Opening up the professional portion of the card, Nonoka Sakamoto (1-0-0) earned a one-sided submission win over Yua Yokose (0-1-0) in their strawweight duel. Sakamoto suplexed Yokose down to the ground early in the fight, and then used a headlock throw to get her back down into side control. She then moved from mount to Yokose’s back and locked on a rear-naked choke for the tapout win at the 4:06 mark.
In a featured amateur strawweight bout, Momoka Yoshikawa (2-8-0 amateur) spoiled the MMA debut of former Rizin FF ring girl Akipi (0-1-0 amateur) via a lopsided second-round TKO. Yoshikawa nearly finished the fight with a ninja choke in the opening seconds, but Akipi escaped and Yoshikawa bloodied her nose with hooks and uppercuts. The doctor checked on Akipi between rounds, but Akipi was determined to fight on and the bout continued with Yoshikawa scoring a takedown early in round two. She moved to mount and rained down punches until the bout was stopped at the 1:01 mark of the second round. Post-fight, Akipi was regretful for the loss but expressed her thanks for the respect shown to her by other fighters and committed to continuing her training and development as a fighter.
Yuka Shimamura scored standing eight counts in both rounds of her amateur strawweight kickboxing match against Hana Suyama and walked away with a lopsided Unanimous Decision victory. Suyama actually got the better of the early striking exchanges by landing counter right hooks as the aggressive and smiling Shimamura charged forward, but that changed when Shimamura swarmed with punches that prompted referee Akira Shibata to intervene for a standing count. The same thing happened again when Suyama was overwhelmed by Shimamura’s non-stop punches in the second round as well, resulting in another standing count, and Shimamura easily prevailed on the scorecards with tallies of 20-16 across the board.
Just as the Yokose sisters did on the professional portion of the card, the Suyama sisters also went 0-2 in amateur action tonight. Asuka Yokoe (1-0-0 amateur) made a successful debut by stopping Yuna Suyama (0-1-0 amateur) with punches in the second round of their 49kg amateur MMA bout. Yokoe took Suyama down into side control and landed punches during the first round, and the fighters later traded knees to the body. Following another Yokoe takedown, she moved to mount in round two and landed rapid-fire punches for a TKO stoppage at the 1:21 mark.
“We had a lot of finishes on tonight’s card,” Deep boss Shigeru Saeki remarked after the event. “There aren’t many opponents left for Rin in Japan. I had wanted a Japanese opponent for Machi, but there was a weight discrepancy. Machi has a good relationship with [Shooto champion] Emi Fujino, so I think that a fight for Machi against [Pancrase champion Haruka] ‘Salt’ [Hasegawa] would be best.”
Full play-by-play for the Deep Jewels 47 card can be found here.