A 12-year old girl is set to fight in the Japanese MMA promotion, DEEP.
Yes, you heard me. Twelve.
Momo, who’s one year short of her teens, is set to take on 24-year-old “bullied” MMA fighter and “delinquent” Momoko Yamasaki, who is currently riding a 2-2 record.
DEEP JEWELS 16: 12-year-old MoMo set to make MMA debut against 24-year-old Momoko Yamazaki https://t.co/z6CWFJroZX pic.twitter.com/D8wJdvkumu
— Women's MMA Rankings (@WMMARankings) April 23, 2017
According to WMMA Rankings:
Yamasaki is coming off two losses and is hoping to get back in the win column by taking out her 12-year-old opponent who is currently a seventh grader. The 24-year-old is a former street-fighter who was bullied in junior high school. According to the press release from DEEP JEWELS, the experience is said to have triggered her to became a delinquent which led to series of “tale of triumphs on the street.
Jesse Holland from MMA Mania did not mince words with this fight, describing it as “sanctioned child abuse.”
I’m inclined to agree. Furthermore, stunts like this accomplish nothing more than empowering MMA’s opponents. People who still think of mixed martial arts as “human cockfighting” – as Senator John McCain once called it – only need to point to fights like this to justify their outrage. If MMA wants to gain the same popularity and respect that sports like football and boxing have, it needs to drop its “freak show” antics and show sports fans everywhere that it deserves their respect.
For this reason, and certainly a host of others, we here at the Jiu-Jitsu Times kindly ask the matchmakers at DEEP to rethink their decision, not only for the sake of this girl, but for the sake of mixed martial arts.
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