Popular Deep Jewels fighter Keito “Kate Lotus” Oyama earned the biggest victory of her MMA career in featured women’s super atomweight action tonight at Rizin Fighting Federation: “World Series In Korea” in Incheon, South Korea. Oyama defeated former Road FC champion Yu Ri Shim.

Oyama, whose first Rizin FF bout ended in a disappointing defeat in July, captured her first win for the promotion in impressive fashion by outworking Shim in the striking and grappling exchanges. After struggling in the past with consistency, Oyama has now won three of her past four fights.

Oyama (7-7-0) quickly targeted the lead leg of Shim (6-6-0) with kicks in the opening round, which she used to set up straight left hands. Shim connected with a handful of right crosses, but she was never able to chain any sustained offence together and Oyama remained effective with her kicks. In the second round, Oyama continued to fare well on the feet, and she also took Shim down twice. Late in the round, Oyama held Shim down against the base of the cage and landed two hard knees to her face.

Shim did rally in round three, and she connected with knees and elbows during an early clinch, but Oyama responded with two more takedowns and she once again stifled Shim’s offence. With the seconds ticking down, Oyama hopped on Shim’s back and secured a tight rear-naked choke. Shim appeared to be in trouble, but the bell sounded and the bout went to the scorecards. All three judges sided with Oyama for a well-deserved Unanimous Decision win.

While she has definitely encountered several ups and downs in her career, the 27-year-old Oyama has shown a lot of improvement during the past 15 months and this was another strong performance tonight. The fan favourite has had a lot of hype behind her, dating back to her pro debut, but she is finally realising that potential and has now won back-to-back fights for the first time.