Preview: Jewels 11th Ring

Tomorrow will bring Jewels 11th Ring, which will seek to crown the first Jewels Lightweight Queen Champion as well as Rough Stone Grand Prix Champions. As noted before, Shizuka Sugiyama is making a comeback during this event, and she will be facing Mongolian fighter Esui, who she was slated to fight in Jewels 9th Ring.

Continue after the jump for the complete card and PV.

Jewels 11th Ring
Date: December 17, 2010
Place: Korakuen Hall in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan

Hiroko Yamanaka vs. Molly “The Maulinator” Helsel [65kg]
Shizuka Sugiyama vs. Esui [59kg]
Miki Morifuji vs. Kinuka Sasaki [57kg - Morifuji Retirement Fight]
Mikyoko Kusaka vs. Asami Higa [50kg]
Emi Murata vs. Anna Saito [55kg]

Lightweight Queen Reserve Bout:

Saori “Shooting Star” Ishioka vs Yuko “Amiba” Oya

Lightweight Queen Tournament Semi-Finals:

Ayaka Hamazaki vs. Sakura Nomura
Mika Nagano vs. Seo Hee Ham

Rough Stone GP 2010 ~48kg Final:

Yukiko Seki vs. Kikuyo Ishikawa

Rough Stone GP 2010 ~52kg Final:

Hiroko Kitamura vs. Mai Ichii

Rough Stone GP 2010 ~56kg Final:

Asako Saioka vs. Mizuki Inoue

All in all, the most exciting part of the night will lie in the lightweight tournament. We’re interested to see how Mika Nagano fairs against the striking of Seo Hee Ham, and we have heard good things about the submission game of Ayaka Hamazaki.

Lastly, but not leastly, we are eager to see a ‘W’ back in the column for Sugiyama.

A brief analysis follows:

Despite a 6-2 record, the designated favorite fighter of Pancake Landing has not been doing well. A pessimistic but honest view of her record would point to her lackluster competition and the fact many of her wins come to decisions (although Jewels’ rules, time limit, and gloves would lend to more decisions). Sugiyama also suffers from consistent lack of head or lateral movement and seemingly weak kicking.  She was completely decimated by the closest legitimate opponent she has come across, Alexandra Sanchez. Add this to her recent shoulder injury, and thus ring rust, and Sugiyama’s prospect to be a top 10 fighter worldwide in her weight class grows less likely while the prospect she will be a flash in the pan until she feels Japan’s patriarchal pressure to get married and retire grows.

Nevertheless, hope still remains. Sugiyama is only 23, and she has only been fighting MMA for 2 years. Her next fight is a good chance to get back on track. Her opponent is a larger and presumably stronger Mongolian former professional wrestler that goes just by Esui. The fact that Esui has only competed in a single MMA fight, and that being a loss due to a fairly quick armbar from a smaller opponent, means that Sugiyama has a good chance to not drop two fights back to back.