(Judo is the backbone of both Rin Nakai (left) and Megumi
Yabushita (right) but Yabushita is a former national champion and the keeper of
the gate)
The headliner of Valkyrie's sixth installment may be a flyweight tourney final
between Naoko Omuro and Ikuko Tamada, but for many women's MMA fans, the
welterweight (61.2 kg) bout announced late last week, became the "real
Main Event" of the show.
And that is, the showdown between a veteran Megumi Yabushita and an up and
coming undefeated star Rin Nakai.
Yabushita is a legend in Japanese women's MMA. She is a former judo national
champ turned pro MMA fighter and has fought all over the world and not only
that, Yabushita has pretty much fought all the world's top fighters at her
weight class.
On the other side of the coin, Nakai's ability is yet to be proven.
She did surprise everyone when she dominated WINDY Tomomi in December 2008 but
WINDY is a striker and Nakai is from judo and in this fight she took WINDY down
and just pounded her way for the win.
Since then no one was willing to fight her at 125 lbs but instead of looking
outside Japan, Nakai's camp decided to go up a weight class, then defeating
Mizuho Sato, and now, she has a chance to take on a former Smack Girl
open-weight champion and 2000 ReMix World Cup Open-weight tourney runner up.
So the role is clear for this fight. Yabushita is the guard dog and Nakai is
the challenger that needs to conquer the big mountain to even think about
fighting world class fighters.
VALKYRIE 06
Saturday, June 19th, 2010
At Differ Ariake, Tokyo, Japan
Doors Open - 12:30
Fight Starts - 13:00
VALKYRIE Woman's Flyweight Tounrament Final Bout 5 min / 3R
Naoko Omuro (Japan / Wajiutsu
Keishukai) vs. Ikuko Tamada (Japan /
AACC)
Woman's Welterweight (61.2 kg) Bout 3 min / 3R
Megumi Yabushita (FIGHT CHIX)
vs. Rin Nakai (Shooto Dojo Shikoku)
Woman's Lightweight (56.7 kg) Bout 3 min / 3R
Mutsumi Kasai (Japan / Paraestra
Tokyo) vs. Ayame (Japan / Wajiutsu
Keishukai RJW / HTW)
Woman's Bantamweight (48,5 kg) Bout 3 min / 3R
Sugi Lock (Japan / Wajiutsu
Keishukai A-3) vs. Megumi Morioka
(Japan / Wajiutsu Keishukai Iwate Branch)
Woman's Featherweight (52.2 kg) Bout 3 min / 2R
Sakura (Japan / Wajiutsu
Keishukai Tokyo Headquarters) vs. Butterfly
Knife Yuka (Japan / MMA - Shooto Gym BLOWS)
Ticket Prices:
SRS - 10,000 yen / RS - 7,000 yen / S - 5,000 yen / A - 3,500 yen
*500 yen more at the door.
Report
by Shu Hirata
Photo by Yoshinori Ihara (www.boutreview.com)
