Shizuka Sugiyama: Top 6 MMA Finishes

Shizuka Sugiyama (Jap. 杉山 しずか, sugiyama shizuka), born February 11^th, 1987, in New York City, USA, is an American-born Japanese, female, mixed martial artist.

She is ranked no.9 out of 128 active Japanese MMA fighters in the pound for pound rankings.

“The Big New Comer of Hope” (kitai no oogata shinjin) also nicknamed “Shiiyan”, currently competes in the Deep, Japanese MMA promotion, and has previously ransacked fighters at the Jewels promotion.

Shizuka’s official YouTube channel; “She is yumm” has a 60.6K fan following and is the fun, quirky place to go to check out what she’s up to!

Before she had any chance to experience life in the west, her family moved back to Japan where she was surrounded by people who were MMA enthusiasts. They aspired to represent their nation at the highest level of sporting competition via the Olympics.

While studying at Tokai University, she became a member of the Karate-Do Zendokai association and began her Karate training at 18. Over the next four years, she earned her karate black belt (in 2009).

Sugiyama made her pro-MMA debut in 2008 at Jewels 1st Ring defeating fellow Japanese mixed martial artist “Harumi” with a rear-naked choke submission.

Her success story unfolded with another triumph at the Japan Open, 2008 Vale Tudo Real Fighting Karate-do Championship Series (57kg). “Shiiyan” repeated this feat in 2009.

In the year 2014, amassing a streak of 5 wins over the previous two years, Shizuka fought against Takayo Hashi for the vacant Deep Jewels Middleweight title at Deep Jewels 4. However, she lost the bout in the last minute of the third round after a robust, and resilient performance.

Shizuka made a massive comeback and has piled up a streak of 10 victories and just 1 loss in Deep to date. In one of her matches against multiple-time World Boxing Council title challenger, Emiko Raika, Shizuka won the match forcing her opponent’s corner to throw in the towel as she mercilessly chained Raika up in a vicious-looking armbar.

There is also speculation of Sugiyama being pitted against the former ex-UFC Bantamweight Champion, Rin Nakai. Sugiyama’s last appearance in the RIZIN ring came in December 2018.

“I don’t really have a specific person I want to face at the moment. So, I think as long as I can keep on fighting, I don’t really care where I fight”, Shizuka says on her future in MMA.

So with her interesting backstory covered, let’s without further ado, get into Shizuka Sugiyama’s Top 6 MMA Finishes! (in descending order)

6. Vs. Emiko Raika – Deep Dream Impact (Dec. 31, 2014)

In round 1, Shizuka cleverly intimidated her opponent from the very beginning as she rushed towards Emiko throwing leather all over in a menacing manner. Emiko went on the defensive to keep herself safe by the side of the cage.

Shizuka took advantage of this opportunity, clinching Raika and flipping her over, to grab her neck and exact some ruthless blows on her face at 55 seconds in.

Shiiyan locked Raika’s right shooting arm between her shins and rained down brutal, short, right arm jabs on Raika’s face. This was proving a disastrous outing for Emiko.

Emiko tried hard to reverse the clinch but got further entangled into the trap as Shizuka executes the most vicious weapon of her arsenal – a deadly armbar at 3:58 of round 1.

Emiko, unable to withstand the pain for long, taps out as the referee desperately intervenes to separate the two. Shizuka won the match via submission armbar at 4:06 of round 1.

5. Vs. Hitomi Sakamoto – Shoot Boxing GT (Aug. 23, 2009)

Back in 2009, Shizuka Sugiyama was already riding high on her success, proving victorious in all 4 of her MMA career matches.

Now she went one-on-one against Hitomi Sakamoto in the featherweight division of Shoot boxing.

It was a thunderous start to the fight with high kicks thrown from both sides. Hitomi greeted her opponent with a cluster of rapid-action punches and quickly upgraded her attack with a sudden takedown, out of the blue.

A bonanza of fistic vengeance culminated at 50 seconds into round 1 with acute punching drills promising maximum damage. Shizuka hijacked Hitomi into a guillotine but quickly changed plans to enact a vicious armbar.

Hitomi continued her struggle to survive the first round by smoking straight jabs upon Sugiyama’s face.

In the second round, the clash accelerated between the two fighters to finish the match on a high note.

Sugiyama got the better of Hitomi and neutralized her efforts again with an armbar and pounding hammer fists to her midsection at 3:35 of round 1.

Shizuka Sugiyama won the match via unanimous Decision at the end of round 2.

4. Vs. Aoi Kuriyama – DEEP 100 Impact (Feb. 21, 2021)

On the bell, and within the blink of an eye the carnage erupted inside the octagon on the 20th anniversary of Deep Jewels.

Shizuka ran into her Japanese counterpart with a crack to the face using a full-extension high kick.

At 0.16 into round 1, Kuriyama delivered a power-packed, low kick deep into her opponent’s shins, overpowering Shiiyan with furious left right striking. Shizuka slithered into action quickly getting her opponent into a takedown.

Now with top mount at a minute into round 1, Shizuka punished Aoi with massive, calculated, short-arm jab strikes pinpointed at her face and head.

The striking got brutal as Kuriyama couldn’t gather enough strength to turn her opponent over.

Shizuka manhandled her by swinging her head sideways, and  assaulted her as though she were a punching bag as her opponent’s blood vessels became visibly swollen, almost seemingly on the verge of rupture.

By this time, the referee (as well as the audience) had seen enough as he hurriedly intervened to cancel further carnage.

Shizuka Sugiyama won the match via TKO punches at 2.39 of round 1.

3. Vs. Yukari Nabe – Deep Jewels 15 (Feb. 25, 2017)

To start, the fighters grappled to occupy the centre of the ring with intent to throw their opponent seemingly into oblivion.

A picturesque carnival of punches flew from both sides, which at 2:25 into round 1 got the audience roaring and cheering on the dynamic performance from the fighters.

Yukari Nabe raged forward to take Shizuka down, but Shizuka, gaining momentum from the ropes, reverses Yukari into a takedown and bombs her with ruthless punches from all angles.

Shizuka rained down a barrage of punches at 4:08 into round 1 as she goes on to finish the opening round on a high note.

In round 2, Nabe grappled hard in an effort to make a comeback. However, she wasted too much time grappling and wasn’t able to change up gears to take maximum advantage.

With intermittent skirmishes and plenty of grappling drama, the match ends with Shizuka winning the match via split Decision.

2. Vs. Mikiko Shimizu – Deep Jewels 36  (Mar. 12, 2022)

This fight featuring the 125-pound flyweight standout, Shizuka Sugiyama, locked horns against Mikiko Shimizu in the Quarter-Finals of the Deep Jewels Flyweight Grand Prix, 2022.

Shizuka dominated the opening round with an early takedown and overwhelmed her opponent with punches and hammerfists.

However, the match took an unexpected turn in the second round when Shimizu trapped Shizuka in an armbar. Shizuka spent close to a minute in the armbar until the finish of the round with the bout going to the scorecards.

Shizuka won the fight via split Decision.

1. Vs. Asami Nakai – Deep Jewels 25 (Sept. 1, 2019)

This brawl escalated at 1:25 into round 1 with Shizuka performing a surreptitious takedown, and throwing her opponent to the canvas. She then threw throbbing blows on Nakai’s face as her opponent fluttered with all her strength to break away.

Nakai’s eyes were smoldering with revenge to make her opponent bite the dust – the same look she brought to the start of the match.

Shizuka quickly executes an ankle lock (à la Olympic Gold medallist and WWE legend, Kurt Angle) as she was on the verge of losing her grip on Nakai.

In round 2, Shizuka throws a high kick, whereupon Nakai taps on the back foot.

The shocker of the match came when Shizuka connected with a hard, left jab straight on Nakai’s nose at 0:14 into the round.

Now here the full power of Shiiyan emerged ransacking Nakai brutally with left-right punches like raining bullets on her head and body. Shizuka took back control locking in with lots of gusto and power, but surprisingly, Nakai still didn’t tap!

Shizuka forces her quarry to the ring post and again into a takedown, locking in an extremely painful, bone-twisting armbar to which Nakai finally taps as the pain sears beyond her pain threshold. The referee hurriedly breaks in to save Nakai from any major injury.

Shizuka won the main event of the night at 04:04 of round 2.

So there we have it folks, 6 of Shizuka Sugiyama’s best MMA finishes!

With her solid record of 21 wins with 6 TKO/KO’s and 5 submissions, where would you rank Shizuka Sugiyama among the female fighting elite? Which is your favourite “Shiiyan” fight from the list above? Which fighter would you like to see get KFK’d next? Let us know in the comments below; Like, share and join in the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter & Instagram!

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