Yes, I'm a wrestling mark and it's kind of like having a member of the USSR wrestling team join the UFC.
Obviously the USSR is gone, and no top active Russian (or Soviet bloc) wrestlers have ever made a run at MMA, so this is the only kind of equivalent we can get (a female analogue). Kind of like peak female boxers/kickboxers (Valentina etc) join MMA because it pays well so we get to see them use those skills, but top male boxers/kickboxers get paid enough not to have to start to worry about getting grapplefucked (except back in the PRIDE/K-1 era I guess).
Since we lost Suarez recently she can also fill the 'elite wrestling' slot for WMMA, but she's not as good at MMA and still needs a couple of years of polish before it starts clicking IMO (also I think Suarez's frame was really good for MMA and that division, which no-one else can match). Spending more time in American gyms would help.
Does anyone know if Kanako Murata trains part-time or full-time in the US now?
Thanks.
I think she does camps in the USA at CSA (chosen because it's where Cejudo was at the time). bottom left with Cory McKenna (also on tonight's card). Sara McMann also trains there.
but that's just for the final camp, otherwise she trains in Japan, looks like she spent time working on wrestling recently. Yui Susaki (top right) is the best female wrestler in the world right now. So she's only part-time in the US.
Here's Murata vs the GOAT female American wrestler for the record.