At the April 17th Rizin 1 event (Gaishi Hall, Nagoya), Namiko Murata marked her debut with a splendid victory. Sitting at the commentary table watching on, Saori Yoshida gave us her thoughts on the fight.

This is really fun, being this close to the action! It has me all worked up ready to fight myself! (laughs)

Could you please tell us your thoughts on Namiko Murata?

I thought she exceeded everyone’s expectations for her debut fight. It might sound strange that we didn’t think she could fight this well, but I didn’t think she could do this. It was such a great fight and I didn’t want them to stop it. She kept the pressure on, led from the front foot and was just great.

You have previously said that doing MMA was a little scary, but watching was very fun. Did you feel that today?

I had a blast watching! It has me all worked up ready to fight myself! (laughs). Of course it would be much different actually getting in the ring, but watching was so much fun. It has really made me want to give it my all and train hard.

You said earlier that you thought Murata was perfectly suited to MMA because she is very strong minded. Was that the case today?

Yes, I really think so. It was her first match and she was probably a little scared to go after her opponent at first but she landed some good punches to relax herself and didn’t just stick to wrestling. I thought she was really great.

Did she look nervous to you?

Well, yes at first she did look nervous and stiff, but as the fight went on she found her rhythm and started to relax more.

When Murata was interviewed, she gave herself only a 30% score.

I think she was going for a KO, and that was quite clear by the way she fought. But it`s her debut fight, I think she did just fine.

In your last interview, you said that you would consider doing MMA after watching this fight?

Yes, I didn’t It (laughs).

Do you still feel the same?

No, it is too scary. It really was quite a fist fight, so I think I am happy just watching (laughs).

What do you think of the overall feel of Rizin?

The fans were amazing, such a great atmosphere here and you could tell they were happy. The fighters all looked so good, and I think they had so much fun being here. I thought the fighters wanted to fight to the death! It was just such a great atmosphere inside.

While Murata was fighting, did you want her to do certain things in the ring?

No, not really. I don’t know the rules of wrestling. I was more like “Oh wow, you can do that?” kind of thing. She threw in so many variations, it was just a great fight.

Murata took a high position in round one, and in round two was basically able to win via a low takedown. What do you think of that takedown?

I think it is a takedown you don’t see too often in wrestling. I just thought “wow”. Of all the people who do wrestling, there are very few who can really can be a “pro” like her and I think that’s great.

Murata wanted to be able to bring this takedown into her MMA and practiced really hard on it as well as other aspects for a long time. Did you see any improvement in her game at all?

I did. When you takedown, quite often you can get countered on with some kind of attack so that’s why it’s always good to try and throw in a strike or two while you attempt a takedown. This is because your opponent will always try to protect their upper body and this leaves them venerable for a takedown.

Changing topics, you have been on wrestling tours to Kumamoto before. What do you think of the terrible situation in Kumamoto after the earthquake?

One of my juniors is from Kumamoto and she told me that her house was destroyed and that her parents are now living far away from their house. After hearing that, and also hearing that the aftershocks are still happening, I really feel sorry for all the victims. I can only imagine the hard times they must be going through. The victims of the Tohoku earthquake are in the same boat still. My father is from Akita and he had to deal with the floods and other things too so I know all about it. I really think we should all go there and do whatever we can to help out but it is so hard to get down there for some people. I have heard stories of food and water not arriving in the cities but I am ready to do whatever I can to help out down there.