OZ Academy Openweight Championship: Hiroyo Matsumoto © vs. Hikaru Shida

 

This was an amazing payoff to almost 2 years worth of building. Shida targets the neck of Hiroyo in a plethora of ways, knee strikes, mount elbows, shinai strikes, an apron-hung neckbreaker -- her control segment was mesmerizing; rare that she fights so aggressively. Hiroyo's comebacks were strong, and the counters were dramatic. The finishing run was brutal, a proper finish to an epic. Incredible match! ****1/2

In a year that has had a chock full of great Hiroyo performances, this is the best one. Everything about her here was fantastic, great selling, smart transitions, and impressive power moves. Shida does a nice job mixing in her speed to keep Hiroyo off balance with her own surprising power and the odd cheap shot with her kendo stick. The finish was a battle of wills Hiroyo surviving Shida big moves before luring Shida into her own finishers. ****1/4