Reggie took the spider woman out of the last tournament; can she do it again? I love this matchup. They work this like the previous match and do callbacks and all that and start out with a bunch of matwork and it's all stupidly great. Reggie may have been better on the mat here than before as she did these great spots where she just collapses Mariko with her power and weight and it's brilliant. Mariko sells big time for Reggie and snaps her submissions on like a snare. I mean the first 5 minutes of this match would've done Negro Navarro proud. Reggie really lays in the chops and Mariko does her damndest to avoid the power moves. It all leads to an utterly brilliant finish. Fantastic stuff and it's so cool to see Bennett as a gaijin monster that doesn't suck on the mat.

Both competitors had only lost once in 21 singles bouts before this. A technically impressive and well worked contest. Bennett really knew how to hang with Yoshida on the mat. It was surprising how adept she was, because you wouldn't think of her as a particularly skilled worker. Going only 10m may have been a help or a limitation. What definitely was a limitation was the dead crowd. There was plenty to cheer here, but sometimes in Japan quiet appreciation is all you get.