On Thursday, July 7th,, the Girls S-cup 2016 event was held at the Toyosu Pit Arena in Tokyo. A Rizin special match was on the card, and was fought between Kanako Murata and Ilona Wijmans under MMA rules (3×5 min rounds, 56.5kgs). Ilona Wijmans, a Dutch K1 fighter, is a K.O. specialist with devastating kicks but it took Murata only 77 seconds to defeat her. Using her wrestling to her advantage, she was able to take down Wijmans, go to the side mount and secure the arm, before relentlessly hitting the ground and pound. The referee had no choice but to stop the fight.

Murata was able to totally dominate the fight, with Wijmans unable to launch a single offensive maneuver. The win takes Murata’s MMA record to 3-0. Murata commented after the fight saying that she wanted to be the number 1 fighter in the world, and wanted MMA fans worldwide to find out just what Rizin is all about. She went on to say that it wasn’t about making a wish for the Japanese tanabata festival (a common practice during the festival), but that she wanted to rise to number 1 through her own sheer will power.

In the main event, shoot boxe champion Rena had her first title defense, taking on Claudia Pöchhacker in a fight that showed just how good Rena is. Rena controlled the fight from the offset, and in the second round landed a severe left body shot that had Pöchhacker reeling. She kept up the constant pressure and domination until Pöchhacker’s corner threw in the towel, 1:42 into the third round.

The event also staged the “Girls S-cup 48kg tournament”, which was won by Mio. This is a new era in women’s MMA!!

Main event: Shoot Boxe World Women’s flyweight title match (expert class rules) – 5R x 3 mins (51kgs) – Rena (champion – Caesar gym) defeated Claudia Pöchhacker (challenger – GMT gym) 1:42 into the 3R via referee stop.

Rizin special match: 3×5 min rounds, 56.5kgs, Rizin MMA rules. Kanako Murata defeated Ilona Wijmans – 1:17 into the 1R via TKO.