12 years old girl, Momo got a RNC win against Momoko Yamasaki at Deep Jewels event in Tokyo. pic.twitter.com/OF2ccBuz7N
— Bruno Massami (Бруно Массами) (@BrMassami) May 20, 2017
When news broke that a 12-year-old Japanese girl would be fighting a woman twice her age in an amateur MMA event, people were rightfully up in arms. How could this be cleared by her parents, let alone an athletic commission? We reached out to Momo, who would send us an emoji-heavy interview text explaining that she loves training and works with some of the best coaches in Japan. Her management went on to tell us that they fully expected little Momo to dominate, and dominate she did, running through her opponent and choking her unconscious.
Let’s go to the pictures!
https://twitter.com/Bestrafer7/status/866475518706806788
12歳格闘家モモ!!!
ガチで子供!!!!!!#DEEPJEWELS pic.twitter.com/LMKA4cMaHX— tatsuyakay (@tatsuyakay) May 20, 2017
Final seconds of the fight between 12 Year old Momo vs 24 yr Yamazaki. #deepjewels16 @sfultonMMA @Jiujitsu_Jedi @deep_official @joerogan pic.twitter.com/Fa8BZ62WhW
— MMA Japan (@mmajpn1) May 20, 2017
お友達を抱く古瀬美月!!!
ガチの萌えだ!!!#DEEPJEWELS pic.twitter.com/4B4uGfUMIF— tatsuyakay (@tatsuyakay) May 20, 2017
It turns out that Momo’s opponent is a hostess at a local restaurant and doesn’t train nearly as often as Momo, who told us she trains three hours a day, six days a week, so maybe this isn’t that much of a surprise that Momo came out on top. Still, if the fight was that skewed in favor of Momo, shouldn’t the hostess not have fought Momo? Typically, at least in U.S. MMA, a fight won’t be made if on a fighter is clearly going to beat down the other, but Japan is known for their freakshow fights, and Momo is just getting her feet wet before potentially going pro.
(Via Bleacher Report)