Official Women's Division Discussion #26
- Thread starter PurpleStorm
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I think Souza's defence was mixed, she did well when she ducked under punches to avoid them or get takedown entries, not so well when she trying to block them with her guard. Also did a good job of slipping to the outside when throwing her right hand but there were also times when she was caught just standing there with her head stll or when moving straight back.
I haven't seen her older fights in a while and I don't really remember them so I can't really comment on how her overall skills are coming along. Her duck under takedown entries work well against lower level fighters who swing at her head all the time, but the good fighters in her division will punish her for that. It's hard to say where she is given the matchups she's had so far in the UFC, Chambers was pretty much a squash match and Frota was at least a division bigger. I'd say book her against someone in the 15-20 range and see how she does from there.
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Here's a link to a video of atomweight Elise Reed's win over the weekend, moving her to 7-1 as an amateur (dunno how to embed okdotru vids).
https://ok.ru/video/1528908550427
Seems like Reed has punching power for a 105'er, she's got violent top control, and sturdy looking takedown defense. Really unsure of her training situation, but she owns a couple of karate gyms called "Kickside Martial Arts", where I hope Bananarama & Joe Esposito are always playing on loop in the background.
There's several amateur atomweights that I think have a lot of promise, and I think Reed is probably at the top of the list. There are better kickboxers & better grapplers fighting amateur at this weight, but Reed looks like the most well rounded of her peers.
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Kristi Garr & Hannah Scoggins have been mentioned in these threads before, I think they're two with a lot of potential at atomweight.
Other interesting young atomweights :
2-1 Oksana Poshkova. Ukrainian muay thai fighter, that has 100+ fights according to her awakening profile. At 5'5" she's kind of huge for an atomweight, and likes to fight in the clinch a lot. Bjj in Ukraine is still questionable.
3-1 Jenna Horto. Finnish kickboxer that floats around to the same few gyms that Grusander trains at.
2-0 Kirman Nijjar. Canadian bjj player, a world champion at purple belt. Small for the weight class, but is used to grappling with larger people. Fun addition in a weight class full of quality wrestling credentials. She has a backtake heavy style of bjj, that I think may work well in scramble heavy divisions like atomweight (think like Formiga, Sasaki, Reis at flyweight).
3-0 Natalie Salcedo. On the US muay thai team for IFMA, and a bjj purple belt. Didn't fight in MMA at all in 2018, but lost a reasonable decision to the much more experienced Myriame Djedidi in muay thai. She just won an mma fight a week or so ago though. Seems like a better wrestler/grappler than she is a kickboxer, like if a budget Lina Lansberg were younger & had a mean top control grappling game (budget Lina Lansberg is a compliment really).
Slam KO!
3-2 Ayan Tursyn. Kazak fighter so it's a bit hard to find information on her, but most of her fights have been under the IMMAF banner at 115. For sure an atomweight though, as I've seen her in sanda competitions at 48kg. Her grappling needs help, but she's building a rad little kickboxing game. Little bit too bouncy/mobile, but has the stamina to keep it up, is good at pivoting out of danger/off the fence, and is a prolific body puncher.
1-0 Marie Ruumet. Estonian that is sponsored by and trains at Team Quest Thailand. Unsure of her muay thai record, but she seems to have lived in Thailand for a few years and fights pro on a lot of local shows. Any foreign woman who fights a lot in Chiang Mai is almost surely fighting some decent fighters.
https://youtu.be/LJZ_pV6o5tw
https://ok.ru/video/1528908550427
Seems like Reed has punching power for a 105'er, she's got violent top control, and sturdy looking takedown defense. Really unsure of her training situation, but she owns a couple of karate gyms called "Kickside Martial Arts", where I hope Bananarama & Joe Esposito are always playing on loop in the background.
There's several amateur atomweights that I think have a lot of promise, and I think Reed is probably at the top of the list. There are better kickboxers & better grapplers fighting amateur at this weight, but Reed looks like the most well rounded of her peers.
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Kristi Garr & Hannah Scoggins have been mentioned in these threads before, I think they're two with a lot of potential at atomweight.
Other interesting young atomweights :
2-1 Oksana Poshkova. Ukrainian muay thai fighter, that has 100+ fights according to her awakening profile. At 5'5" she's kind of huge for an atomweight, and likes to fight in the clinch a lot. Bjj in Ukraine is still questionable.
3-1 Jenna Horto. Finnish kickboxer that floats around to the same few gyms that Grusander trains at.
2-0 Kirman Nijjar. Canadian bjj player, a world champion at purple belt. Small for the weight class, but is used to grappling with larger people. Fun addition in a weight class full of quality wrestling credentials. She has a backtake heavy style of bjj, that I think may work well in scramble heavy divisions like atomweight (think like Formiga, Sasaki, Reis at flyweight).
3-0 Natalie Salcedo. On the US muay thai team for IFMA, and a bjj purple belt. Didn't fight in MMA at all in 2018, but lost a reasonable decision to the much more experienced Myriame Djedidi in muay thai. She just won an mma fight a week or so ago though. Seems like a better wrestler/grappler than she is a kickboxer, like if a budget Lina Lansberg were younger & had a mean top control grappling game (budget Lina Lansberg is a compliment really).
Slam KO!
3-2 Ayan Tursyn. Kazak fighter so it's a bit hard to find information on her, but most of her fights have been under the IMMAF banner at 115. For sure an atomweight though, as I've seen her in sanda competitions at 48kg. Her grappling needs help, but she's building a rad little kickboxing game. Little bit too bouncy/mobile, but has the stamina to keep it up, is good at pivoting out of danger/off the fence, and is a prolific body puncher.
1-0 Marie Ruumet. Estonian that is sponsored by and trains at Team Quest Thailand. Unsure of her muay thai record, but she seems to have lived in Thailand for a few years and fights pro on a lot of local shows. Any foreign woman who fights a lot in Chiang Mai is almost surely fighting some decent fighters.
https://youtu.be/LJZ_pV6o5tw
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Weili Zhang's teammate Heqin Lin signed with ONE, and is fighting Jomary Torres in March. Lin has been fighting at flyweight, but I guess is in ONE's atomweight division. Bit of a can crusher, but she has fought Mallory Martin & Bo Meng to decisions.
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I remember Janaisa Morandin who is much smaller bullied her along the cage and rocked her badly.
I didn't see notable improvement from Souza. Frota's strikes came from miles away, Souza made little effort to either adjust the range or fire counter strikes.
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Deep Jewels 23 lineup finalized for March 8:
Deep-Jewels 23, Tokyo, March 8th
Tomo Maesawa vs. Kanna Asakura
Emi Tomimatsu vs. Hikaru Aono
Reina Miura vs. Mao Ueda
Kana Watanabe vs. Soo Min Kang
Sachiko Fujimori vs. Yukari Nabe
Yuko Oya vs. Asami Nakai
Yasuko Tamada vs. Madoka Ishibashi
Mizuki Oshiro vs. Kotori Tamiya
Ai Shimizu vs. Koedo Kuniho
Emi Sato vs. Suwanan Boonsorn
King Reina and Watanabe both taking big steps up in competition, each facing debutants. Kanna Asakura, on the other hand, is facing good comp in the current champ. Typical Japanese non title fight, however.
Suwanan Boonsoorn is someone to watch. She’s the girl who nearly ripped Loma Lookboonme’s arm off last year in Thailand.
https://asianmma.com/asakura-miura-on-board-for-deep-jewels-23/
Deep-Jewels 23, Tokyo, March 8th
Tomo Maesawa vs. Kanna Asakura
Emi Tomimatsu vs. Hikaru Aono
Reina Miura vs. Mao Ueda
Kana Watanabe vs. Soo Min Kang
Sachiko Fujimori vs. Yukari Nabe
Yuko Oya vs. Asami Nakai
Yasuko Tamada vs. Madoka Ishibashi
Mizuki Oshiro vs. Kotori Tamiya
Ai Shimizu vs. Koedo Kuniho
Emi Sato vs. Suwanan Boonsorn
King Reina and Watanabe both taking big steps up in competition, each facing debutants. Kanna Asakura, on the other hand, is facing good comp in the current champ. Typical Japanese non title fight, however.
Suwanan Boonsoorn is someone to watch. She’s the girl who nearly ripped Loma Lookboonme’s arm off last year in Thailand.
https://asianmma.com/asakura-miura-on-board-for-deep-jewels-23/
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So I was obviously mistaken about the Tabatha Watkins fight being for Invicta. She kept mentioning a big opportunity on February 15th and it didn't even occur to me that it would be Bellator because they only recently started doing Atomweight fights. She's going to fight Lindsey VanZandt on the prelims of Bellator 215. Invicta made more sense to me since two of her teammates fought under that banner. A short notice Bellator opportunity is still big especially against someone like VanZandt.
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Interesting news. Didn't know VanZandt's opponent had changed.
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Tomo Maesawa vs. Kanna Asakura is a good one. Quick turnaround for Kanna after losing to Ayaka Hamasaki in Rizin new year's eve. Tomo has a three-fight win streak over Mina Kurobe, Jeong Eun Park & Yuko Saito for Deep Jewels.
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Fifty one, according to Tapology. She hasn’t fought since dropping a unanimous decision to Kanna Asakura in 2015, a full year after losing to Waterson.
Lady was 38 when she made her pro debut!
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In a few years she could even fight Gabi!
Nah, she’s small enough that they could probably book that fight now.
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Debuted at 38 and already have a 13 year career...
Damm!!
Anyway, i remember the way we discovered her age: after her only invicta bout against Waterson.
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Yeah, I remember that took some damn sleuthing. I can totally understand why she hid her age so well, the amount of BLATANT ageism shown after it was revealed she was 47 was crazy.
When the only facts known were that a Tamada, a former champion, riding a 3 fight win streak and ranked #5 in the world was fighting for the Invicta belt, most people were OK with that. Everyone else in the top 5 was scheduled already and Penne had moved on to the UFC. Tamada was thought to be on the small side and Waterson was favored, but it wasn't like Michelle had looked dominant or big against Penne and she was coming off a 1.5 year layoff.
Then Waterson utterly *DESTROYS* Tamada and it looks like they belong in two different weight classes. Then we find out the age and holy shit, people go CRAZY with indignant fervor!!! They are saying that Shannon Knapp should be sent to jail, the fight should have never been sanctioned, it was a gimme fight to pump up Waterson.....
....all because we found out Tamada was old. Her 3 fight win streak, her former championship and multiple championship fights no longer mattered. She was just a "old" person who didn't deserve to fight.
Disgusting.
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Disgusting, yes. Particularly when there were other opponents that were available. There is a marked decrease in performance as one ages. But Kedzie had to protect her little friend from a real match up as well as scrutiny.
So yeah, Waterson destroyed an old woman (I am older than Tamada was then, I damn well know the difference as wel as the well-documented scientific losses in not only hormone production and regulation, but neural factors such as rate coding and rate of force development).
But continue along in your aberrant psychosis. Tell me, were you able to find a Waterson hair doll on the dark web?
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