Tag: shinobu kandori

Yumiko Hotta replaces Shinobu Kandori in Rizin fight against Gabi Garcia

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

The controversial battle between Gabi Garcia and 52-year-old politician and pro wrestler Shinobu Kandori on the Rizin New Year’s Eve show at the Saitama Super Arena was announced as now off at a Tokyo press conference due to Kandori suffering a serious rib injury in training.

But if anything, that only created a bigger mismatch. The replacement announced was Yumiko Hotta, another star of the boom period of women’s pro wrestling.

Kandori was at least considered the toughest of all the Japanese women pro wrestlers of their era, the late 80s and the 90s. She won a bronze medal in judo at the 1984 world championships and had a 4-1 record during the primitive days of women’s MMA in Japan.

Hotta, who turns 50 on January 10th, has a 5-4 MMA record with all of her fights but one coming between 1995 and 2000. In 2000, she suffered a submission loss to Kandori. She was a three-time WWWA world champion in the old All Japan women’s promotion.

Her lone fight since that time was a gimmick match on February 18th, 2012, losing to Amanda Lucas, the daughter of Star Wars king George Lucas, via third round submission.

Only two of Hotta’s wins were against non-pro wrestlers and all four losses were via submission against fighters with nowhere near the Jiu Jitsu credentials of Garcia, who has won 11 world championships in that sport. At 5-foot-5 and 160 pounds, Hotta will give away tremendous size to Garcia, who is 6-foot-1, and has fought recently at between 215 and 245 pounds. Garcia will not be the largest woman Hotta has faced in MMA, as in 1995, she lost to a 6-foot-3, 327 pound Russian judoka, Svetlana Gunderarenko.

Hotta’s background was in karate, and started pro wrestling in 1985 at a time when women’s pro wrestling was a huge television hit on network television in a weekend afternoon time slot. In her second year in the promotion, she was made the tag team partner of Chigusa Nagayo, the most popular woman wrestler of all-time, and they won the 1986 year-end Grand Prix tournament.

Hotta has remained active in pro wrestling for the past 31 years.

Harley Saito passes away at 48 years old

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Harley Saito, who was one of the top name woman wrestlers of the 90s, passed away today in a Tokyo hospital while undergoing surgery to remove uterine fibroids.

Saito had just turned 48 three days ago.

Born Sayori Saito, she took the name Harley after Harley Race.

Saito started her career as a teenager in 1986 with the JWP promotion, the rival to the dominant All Japan women’s group. She was part of the original group that left JWP in 1992 to form LLPW, where she was one of the top stars, with two different one-year runs as LLPW world champion.

She also competed on the 1992 LPWA PPV in Rochester, MN, the Super Ladies Showdown, winning an eight-woman tournament for the LPWA Japanese women’s championship.

She regularly worked with and against Shinobu Kandori, the current Japanese politician who is facing Gabi Garcia on the Rizin show later this month. On April 2nd, 1995, she was part of the 13-promotion show put on by Weekly Pro Wrestling before 50,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome, in what was billed as a UFC rules fight, where she lost to Kandori quickly via ground and pound.

She originally retired in 2010, but returned and had her final match at a retirement show on December 29th, 2012.

Rizin books Gabi Garcia vs. Shinobu Kandori for New Year’s Eve

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

In the world of crazy MMA fights, one of the wackiest in history was announced for the Rizin Fighting Federation show on New Year’s Eve at the Saitama Super Arena with Gabrielle “Gabi” Garcia facing Shinobu Kandori.

Kandori, 52, serves in Japan’s House of Councilors, equivalent to the U.S. House of Representatives. She placed in the world judo championships in 1984 before becoming one of the biggest stars of the 90s in Japanese women’s wrestling. There are those who would say the April 2nd, 1993 match at the Yokohama Arena between Kandori and Akira Hokuto was the greatest women’s wrestling match of all-time, and if not, it is both in the discussion and among the most famous.

Garcia, 31, is 6-foot-2 and weighed 245 pounds of muscle for her fight with Destanie Yarbrough in September. She will likely have a 90 to 100 pound weight advantage and eight inches in height. The two looked ridiculous next to each other earlier today in the staredown at a press conference with Nobuhiko Takada in the background.

Kandori crossed over to MMA from 1995 to 2000, including a 1998 win over 6-foot-3, 320 pound Olympic judoka Svetlana Gundarenko. It is the legend of that match which is the back story of this match. But the idea of the match at this stage is ridiculous.