Behold the Awesomeness of Rin Nakai

Although I never thought it would happen due to her husband/manager and her contract with Pancrase, but Rin Nakai has signed with the UFC and will fight Meisha Tate on at UFC card in Japan. Rin seems too short for the women’s 135lb division in the UFC and would benefit from training with more professional MMA fighters with high level UFC experience but I wish her luck. I still want a Rin Nakai walkout shirt, maybe I can order one off of UFC.com now.

Rin is no longer in the UFC

Rin’s UFC career has not gone well, she is not the tallest person in the world and is now 0-2 in the UFC. She was on a two fight contract but as the only Japanese woman on the UFC roster they are encouraging her to cutdown and lose some muscle and try to make the other UFC Woman’s division which is 115. Both her and Seo Hee Ham lost recently in Australia and probably hope the UFC adds 105lbs and 125lbs but I’m still not sure how women’s MMA does when Rhonda Rousey walks away from the sport.

Rin is back in Japan

Rin is going to try to drop to 125 then even lower and will be fighting outside the UFC once again while she tries to make the necessary weight adjustments, maybe someday she’ll even join a fight camp in America, apparently Jackson-Wink is her dream camp.

Rin has Athletic Ability

The original photo I posted was taken after a professional mixed martial arts fight, which Rin of course won. She remained undefeated for an extended period but her opponents were perhaps carefully chosen, not uncommon in the fight game.

The rules are different in Japan

I lost a little respect for K1 when I learned they changed the rules to make it more difficult for this one Muay Thai fighter as he was dominating the lighter weights which is the only real hope the Japanese have of winning in K1 now. The heavier weights are dominated by Europeans mostly. They limited the amount of knees I think you were allowed to throw in the Thai Plum, something like that. Or was it limited elbow strikes in some way, basically moves that weren’t part of Karate were demphasised further or made illegal to stop the Juggernaut that was Buakaw. Some Japanese hero was able to finally defeat him by decision then he retired without fighting him again, very dubious.

Yep they made elbows illegal then the Thai Plum…

Attacking an opponent while holding a neck of an opponent with both hands is considered a foul technique. A fighter is allowed to attack momentarily when grabbing his opponent with one hand. The referee may call a break during a match if the one handed grab does not lead to an effective attack, and may give a caution or a warning if these ineffective single grabbing continues and or if such actions cause deadlock.

Highlight Videos

Alas they come and go if they are not official due to copyright violations. Even in 2019 there still a number that remain online from when I first posted about Rin.

Here is the official trailer for the 2010 World Grand Prix Final of K1. It is open weight hence why a giant Dutchman has won it most years, this year most of the finalists are rather large Dutchmen. Overreem eventually went to the UFC.

135lbs was Rouseyweight

Like a lot of Japanese fighters, Rin is a bit small and short for competition outside of Japan. 135lbs seems to be the weight at which women are able to compete and make money fighting in a cage. Witness the rise of Ronda Rousey. Rin and Rousey never fought both seem to have gone towards “sports entertainment” or have sought to supplement their income outside the ring/cage.  Rin and her management may have made some odd decisions especially on social media. I was worried Rin would fall prey to the Japanese AV industry.

More Rin Nakai

Someone posted an interview of Rin Nakai translated into English. She and her the fight promotion in Japan have posted some strange videos to YouTube. Roxanne Modafferi interviewed Rin Nakai prior to her UFC debut. 頑張ってます！Below is yet another Rin Nakai video, Dana White ended up signing her because of or despite her image. Alas she went 0-2 in her first UFC run. I don’t know if there will be a second. Now the great Asian hope in women’s MMA may be Zhang Weili from China. I actually saw the first UFC card in mainland China.

I’d be remiss if I did not mention Rin has a blog. So if you want to know more about Rin that may be the place to start.

This entry was originaly posted on December 9th, 2010, it was last edited on April 21st, 2024 and is filed under: Rambles and tagged: MMA, Rin Nakai, 健美.