Two of the top female fighters in Asian MMA are training together in Hawaii. Kana Watanabe shared a photo of her with Angela Lee and it looks like they have been working out together at United MMA.
Watanabe is a Rizin veteran who currently competes in Bellator’s flyweight division. Angela Lee is the reigning ONE Championship atomweight title holder although there doesn’t seem to be much of a size difference:
一人でハワイ来てます！
アンジェラ選手と一緒に3週間頑張ります！！！
ハワイは大きめのポテチが700円。
物価高過ぎて無駄遣いできないので痩せそうです🐷 pic.twitter.com/lgd1gDFRIy— Kana Watanabe×渡辺華奈 (@kanawatanabe821) August 3, 2022
Expensive trip
Watanabe says that she has travelled to Hawaii on her own in order to spend three weeks training with Angela Lee,
“I’m going to Hawaii by myself! I will do my best for three weeks with Angela. In Hawaii, a large bag of potato chips is 700 yen. Prices are too high and I can’t waste money so I’m going to lose weight,” she wrote on Twitter.
Earlier in the week Watanabe tweeted a photo of herself training with Lee and ONE Championship star Lea Bivins. In this photo she does appear to be noticeably taller than the other two:
夜はグラップリング🤼
楽しい！！ pic.twitter.com/wnvZSeKCYA— Kana Watanabe×渡辺華奈 (@kanawatanabe821) August 3, 2022
New tricks
Watanabe stated that she had been working on her grappling with the two ONE Championship stars. She comes from a judo background and had success in the sport before becoming a professional mixed martial artist.
Watanabe fought multiple times for Deep-Jewels and Rizin but was struggling to find suitable opponents at 125lbs in Japan. In 2019 she signed for Bellator and last year Watanabe faced Liz Carmouche in a title eliminator.
She was submitted by the UFC veteran at Bellator 261 but this remains the only defeat of Watanabe’s career. Her record is 11-1-1 and she is clearly the best flyweight in Asia.
At Bellator London she bounce back from that loss to submit Denise Kielholtz with a triangle choke in the second round. Afterwards Watanabe admitted that she was not happy with her performance.
The 33 year old appears to be looking to take her game to the next level. She seems to think that spending three weeks in Hawaii training with ONE Championship atomweight queen Angela Lee is the perfect way to do just that.
It will be interesting to see if Watanabe picks up any new tricks from Lee. The BJJ black belt is renowned for her submission skills and perhaps we will see the Bellator star trying to pull off a twister in her next fight.
