Two marquee matchups have been announced for Deep Jewels 5, which is set to take place on August 9th at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo, Japan. Former Jewels champions will collide when Ayaka Hamasaki returns from an injury hiatus to face Naho “Sugi Rock” Sugiyama in a 106-pound contender’s bout.
Also confirmed for Deep Jewels 5 is a much-anticipated rematch between Deep Jewels Interim Lightweight Champion Emi Tomimatsu and teen prodigy Mizuki Inoue. The pair first faced off in a February fight that Inoue won by third-round submission, but she was disqualified for missing weight.
Hamasaki (9-1-0) makes her long-awaited return to competition and drops down to the 106-pound Deep Jewels featherweight division for the first time in August. The skilled judoka formerly held the Jewels Lightweight Queen Championship and she has totalled wins over reigning Deep Jewels Featherweight Champion Seo Hee Ham (twice), legend Yuka “Vale Tudo Queen” Tsuji, WSOF title challenger Emi “Kamikaze Angel” Fujino and the aforementioned Mizuki Inoue. She has been sidelined due to injuries for close to a year and now looks to rebound from her first career loss at Invicta FC 6.
Sugiyama (10-3-0) has battled inconsistency during the past two years, but she now has an opportunity to jump right back into the Deep Jewels title picture if she can get past the returning Hamasaki. After opening her career with eight straight wins that included a Jewels Featherweight Queen Championship victory in late 2011, Sugiyama suffered three straight defeats that dropped her out of title contention for the time being. However, she has fared well since Deep Jewels’s inception this past year and she has scored back-to-back wins during her short time with the promotion.
Tomimatsu (7-7-0) sports a modest record that belies her level of talent and she has demonstrated huge improvements in her MMA game since returning to the sport in 2011. Razor-thin decision defeats to “V.V” Mei Yamaguchi and Mika “Future Princess” Nagano kept Tomimatsu just out of reach of a Jewels title shot, but the veteran grappler put on one of her best performances to date in victory over Nagano in the pair’s November rematch. Tomimatsu was crowned as the new Deep Jewels Interim Lightweight Champion by default in February when opponent Inoue missed weight.
Inoue (7-2-0) is one of the most highly-touted female prospects in MMA today, but the 19-year-old’s dream of becoming a world champion in Japan hit a snag earlier this year when she failed to make weight for her title fight with Tomimatsu. Though she was deemed ineligible to win on the official record, Inoue opted to fight on against Tomimatsu anyway and she forced Tomimatsu to submit to an armbar in the third round. As a result of Inoue’s unofficial win and the controversial nature of the first fight, Deep Jewels has booked a title rematch between the two for August.
Deep Jewels 5 takes place on August 9th at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo, Japan. The rematch between Tomimatsu and Inoue will be contested for the Undisputed Deep Jewels Lightweight Championship.
Will this be Inoue’s last fight for DEEP? He manager has already talked about her debuting in UFC later in the year.