Saori Ishioka - Married And Expecting Baby

This photo was taken at the "Saori Ishioka Autograph Session" held at the ticket agency in Tokyo called T-1 little before she faced Bellator veteran Megumi Fujii. She is very popular among the Japanese MMA fans and on this day, she took no break and signed autograph for one-hour.A very popular female MMA fighter from Japan, Saori Ishioka, revealed she married a fellow karate-ka from Zendo-kai dojo back in February of this year.

And her wedding ceremony will take place tomorrow at the hotel in Matsumoto city, Nagano Prefecture.

Ishioka told the Japanese media, "About two years ago, he confessed to me and we started to going out."

"I liked his face" is the reason why Ishioka fell for the groom.

"Many of my friends wonders about my taste though" the bride followed it with a smile.

Also, Ishioka is pregnant, and expecting their first child in the spring of next year.

"Honestly this was not within my plan so I am not feeling realistic about this yet. I did well against WIND Tomomi (03/11/2012) so I wanted to continue more and I was planning on fighting for JEWELS in July."

Obviously, she had to change her plan, and in terms of her future, Ishioka said, "Maybe everyone in the family would be doing karate. I want to build a fun family."

However, this doesn't mean she is done with MMA, "I do like to continue but not until I give a birth, I wouldn't know for sure. But my husband said, 'I will cooperate' so I am thinking positive about continue fighting."

Ishioka made a pro MMA debut back in March 2007, and from 2008 she has been one of the "Ace fighters" for JEWELS, and so far, posted a pro MMA record of 11 wins and 7 losses.


Report by Shu Hirata
Photo courtesy of DEEP blog: The Wild Side of DEEP