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Interview with WPMF Champ, Saya Ito

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Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu Mentor

Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

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Really nice to hear her thoughts Charlie, great little interview. I fear she'll never fight Sylvie again...at least, it will probably be smart not to. That she doesn't really train clinch, and Sylvie herself counts that she didn't really know clinch the last time they fought back in 2014, it would probably not turn out that well, just as a match up of styles. In that vein, it's probably best that she fight Phetjee Jaa, as soon as possible, while she still has a weight advantage. But again, the clinch even at this point would be too much. All the top Thai fighters are clinch fighters. Puengsiam, Loma, Jee Jaa.

Nice though that she hopes to fight once a month, and on Lion Fight as well. Thanks for bringing this all forward. Great reporting.

p.s. it's also kind of funny that Saya doesn't know who holds the WMC belt...because I'm not sure that anyone else does. Your guess of Little Tiger is about as good as any, though I thought she lost it to Pizza (who then retired) in their last fight.

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It was an interesting experience, she came straight from Disney Land to meet me and a man from the newspaper who was stopping by later. You've obviously met her before, but she doesn't speak much, she just got to training, answered questions, all while her coach watched her train beaming with pride and telling me little tidbits about her and probing me to see what I knew. He had some interesting words for Little Tiger that I thought were hilarious.

Addressing your comment about her clinch, I think she was doing a Japanese thing where you don't boast about yourself / undervalue everything you do. While she said that she does not care about it or train it, I imagine that that is not the case at all. However, if she does indeed retire upon graduation, 2 years from now, I can understand why she isn't going to concentrate on it that much. Being a student means that she doesn't have a lot of freedom when she can leave the country so odds are she is going to be fighting Japanese fighters or foreign fighters brought to Japan, plus it seems that she wants to fight in America or Europe before she retires.

She reminds me a lot of Erika.They were both very quiet yet serious about Muay Thai, but they mixed their love of Muay Thai with Japanese Fighting Spirit for lack of a better term, so they prefer to go forward. Whereas other Japanese fighters like Rena are more...serious/bubbly? I imagine it has to do with traditional Japanese martial art mentality creeping into the schools over there.

She said Little Tiger doesn't but I think she does, I think something weird happened where after Pizza retired Little Tiger won it in some match, but I have no idea, WMC is a joke at least WPMF has a semi-functional website.

Her coach actually asked if i was you, when he saw me. Saya just laughed at him and said no.

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Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu Mentor

Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

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Addressing your comment about her clinch, I think she was doing a Japanese thing where you don't boast about yourself / undervalue everything you do. While she said that she does not care about it or train it, I imagine that that is not the case at all. However, if she does indeed retire upon graduation, 2 years from now, I can understand why she isn't going to concentrate on it that much.

 

It could be that she was just being modest about clinch, but what sent up a red flag was the somewhat honest sounding claim that she remembered the techniques she learned when she was in Thailand. From everything that Sylvie told me she really never got beyond the very basics in Thailand, things like how to tension the body, certain positions. You can't really learn clinch that way. It would be like learning wrestling from a few "moves". You have to train it hours and hours and hours, really for years. Sylvie's been at it for maybe a year and a half, heavy work, every day against adequate training partners (which Saya likely does not have, they are hard to find even in Thailand), and she's still only progressed to maybe intermediate clinch (which is still very high for a female fighter). Clinch in Muay Thai is maybe a little bit like "ground game" in MMA. You can't just add it, or learn some principles. It has to be rooted in the heavy practice of an art. Even if she has a trainer who is knowledgeable in clinch, he would have to be near her physical size, and she'd have to be dedicating pretty heavy hours to it to progress. This was a problem Sylvie faced in Thailand before moving to Pattaya. It's not easy to train for a female that size even in Thailand.

re: "Being a student means that she doesn't have a lot of freedom when she can leave the country so odds are she is going to be fighting Japanese fighters or foreign fighters brought to Japan, plus it seems that she wants to fight in America or Europe before she retires."

If she stays at 100 lbs, I'm curious which foreign fighters she would imagine she could fight? Perhaps there are some in Europe, but this is a very small pool of fighters. It was cool that she thought Lion Fight would be a great show, but it seems that Lion Fight is having some cash flow issues. I suspect there would not be a kind of money that would be able to bring her to the US. And again, who would she fight at 100 lb, or even 105 lbs?

re: She reminds me a lot of Erika.They were both very quiet yet serious about Muay Thai, but they mixed their love of Muay Thai with Japanese Fighting Spirit for lack of a better term, so they prefer to go forward.

I know Sylvie really liked her. Perhaps one day fates will meet up and bring them together again. It was certainly a wonderful coincidence that had them training together.

re: Her coach actually asked if i was you, when he saw me. Saya just laughed at him and said no.

So awesome Charlie! Makes me smile.

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I didn't get any feel from her about Jaa, I thought she would want to talk about her more, but as you probably know she isn't overly talkative. I know that she likes Jaa and I would guess that she is responsible for Jaa getting the fight whether directly or indirectly. If I had to guess, it seems like she is more interested in titles before she retires.

 

Rika just retired and her dad is that promoter. He likes to mix women's fights into his cards and maybe looking for a new fighter to highlight. Foreign fighters can become very popular in Japan. I imagine her proximity to Japan, the yen to baht exchange rate, her age, and her skill level appeal to him as a promoter

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Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu Mentor

Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

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Back to your question about opponents, she has close connections to people in the US. She may not get a high caliber opponent, but she could probably get a fight through them

 

If so, it would likely be an amateur fighter fighting her first pro fight There just are almost zero 100 lb fighters in the US. Amy Davis, I don't know if you remember her, she fought in Japan, at 105 lbs couldn't find someone to fight in North America for years, and had to eventually move to MMA. It was very sad.

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Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu Mentor

Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

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If Jaa crushes her opponent she should attempt to get in the 48kg S-Cup and dominate it like Buakaw did

 

I would seriously doubt PJJ crushing a girl with 6 or 7 kg on her. I suspect she'll just point fight her, and turn her a few times in the clinch.

But it sounds like, if you had to guess, Saya will not fight PJJ. I'm fairly sure PJJ's family wants to fight her, but I guess they don't really have much to say about the matter. In the end, for them it will be money that will talk. PJJ fights where the money is.

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