On Saturday night, 19-year-old rising star Larissa Moreira Pacheco scored her biggest win to date at Jungle Fight 63 in Belém, Pará, Brazil. Pacheco stopped Mexican striker Irene Aldana in round three of the co-feature to win the inaugural Jungle Fight Women’s Bantamweight Championship.
Pacheco pressured Aldana with strikes on the feet right from the opening bell and both fighters threatened with submissions in a series of scrambles on the mat. In the final round, Pacheco dropped Aldana with a four-punch combination to become Jungle Fight’s first 135-pound female champion.
Voting is now underway for the 2013 Women’s Mixed Martial Arts Awards. This year’s edition again features more than a dozen categories. These awards recognise notable achievements made by fighters, promotions and other individuals associated with the sport over the course of the past year.
Fresh off of a victory this past month, three-time Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup Champion Rena Kubota returns to the ring at Shoot Boxing 2013: “Tomohiro Oikawa Retirement Event” on December 23rd in Osaka, Japan. Kubota is set to face Korean kickboxing champion Jiwaen Lee on the card.
The inaugural WSOF Women’s Strawweight Championship will be up for grabs when top-ranked Jessica “Jag” Aguilar takes on fast-rising star Alida Gray at World Series of Fighting 8. The event takes place on January 18th at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Former Jewels title contender Kikuyo Ishikawa has officially retired from mixed martial arts competition. The 29-year-old Okinawan announced on Monday that she is married and expecting her first child, and confirmed that she will be moving on from MMA to pursue the next chapter in her life.
Flyweight prospect Tyra “The Honey Badger” Parker begins her move back down towards the strawweight division when she steps back into the cage at Gladiator Challenge: “Kaboom” on January 18th in El Cajon, California. Parker takes on former Tuff-N-Uff title contender Kristi “Violencia” Lopez.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship made its way to Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, California tonight for UFC on FOX 9: “Johnson vs Benavidez 2.” The event was headlined by a UFC Flyweight Championship rematch between Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Joseph Benavidez.
Three additional fights have been announced for the upcoming Deep Jewels 3 card on February 16th in Tokyo, Japan. Former Jewels Featherweight Queen Champion Naho “Sugi Rock” Sugiyama looks for her second straight win when she takes on Satomi “Sarami” Takano in a featured matchup.