Kana Watanabe has signed a multi fight deal with Bellator according to MMA Junkie. The undefeated flyweight has already fought for the promotion once.
Watanabe appeared on the Bellator Japan card and Scott Coker told MMA Junkie that Rizin had sanctioned her departure,
“Kana Watanabe is an Olympic judo qualifier, so she’s got extremely great judo technique. She fought last year in the Rizin show against Bellator, and she beat one of our Brazilian girls, so she kind of caught my eye a little bit. She’s been working on her striking over there, and she’s working on her complete game. We had the opportunity to sign her through Rizin, so we made a deal.”
Watanabe holds a record of 9-0-1 and has spent her career competing for Deep-Jewels and Rizin. She fought four times in 2019, winning every fight but has yet to feature in 2020.
The 32 year old has beaten Shizuka Sugiyama twice but has struggled to find suitable calibre opponents in Japan. It is possible that Rizin allowed her to leave due to the lack of depth on its female flyweight roster.
