Rena Kubota overcame some early adversity and made her case for a future title shot with a punishing second-round TKO win tonight at Rizin Combating Federation: “Tremendous Rizin 3” in Saitama, Japan. Kubota stopped Deep Jewels prospect Kate “Lotus” Oyama in girls’s tremendous atomweight motion.
Tonight’s victory was Kubota’s third in her previous 4 fights for Rizin, the place she has been a prime star for near 9 years regardless of by no means holding the promotion’s girls’s title. She hopes to get a shot on the 108-pound belt, which is presently held by champion Seika Izawa, someday later this yr.
Kubota (15-5-0) maintained a boxing-focused strategy within the opening spherical, whereas Oyama (5-7-0) blended up her strikes with leg kicks along with lead proper hooks and straight left palms. Her punches precipitated some swelling round each of Kubota’s eyes, however Kubota was nonetheless touchdown the extra highly effective strikes and that supplied her with a bonus in an in any other case aggressive spherical.
Within the second stanza, Oyama as soon as once more received off to a superb begin with early combos, however Kubota started to take management because the spherical progressed. On two separate events, she backed Oyama right into a nook and punished her with knees and left hooks to the liver. Oyama refused to surrender, however Kubota continued to blast her with punches till referee Masato Fukuda lastly intervened for the TKO stoppage on the 4:18 mark of spherical two.
Rena Kubota (left) and Kate “Lotus” Oyama (proper) backstage following Tremendous Rizin 3.
“I used to be anxious about this battle,” Kubota admitted when talking backstage following her triumphant win. “If I used to be to lose, I might have misplaced every thing. Kate has a superb preventing spirit and the potential to be a star. I harm my proper leg and thumb earlier than the battle, and we additionally clashed heads, however I continued to commerce [punches] together with her as a result of I needed to match her aggressive perspective.
“At present’s occasion was particular with such a big viewers,” Kubota added. “I anticipate that I could obtain my probability [at the title], so I’ll practice for that battle. I admit that Seika [Izawa] has nice talent general, however I would like that probability.”
“[Kubota] has a robust Thai clinch,” Oyama remarked backstage following her defeat. “I assumed I might hit her some [in the clinch], however she was robust. I didn’t anticipate to get stopped, however I regarded down and so the referee intervened. I didn’t quit. Please cheer for me once more.”
(High Photograph Credit score: Rizin Combating Federation)
