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
An MMA bout in Japan between a 12-year-old seventh-grader making her fighting debut and a grown woman twice her age? A sideshow, for sure. A mismatch, of course.
But not the way you think. (Or, exactly the way you think.)
The preteen martial artist known as Momo made brisk and brutal work of her 24-year-old opponent, Momoku Yamasaki, this past weekend at Deep Jewels 16, a fighting card in Tokyo. Momo won via submission in the first round, clambering up her larger opponent’s back and applying a rear naked choke.
Rather than a one-sided bout between an adult and a helpless child, this appears to have been a carefully managed, if still grotesque, showcase for a young prodigy — Momo told Uproxx she trains three hours a day, six days a week at a prestigious dojo — against a willing tomato can (Yamasaki is a restaurant hostess with a, shall we say, less strict regimen), all with extra safety precautions in place (note the headgear in the clip above, as per amateur rules).
