Wrestling Universe is a multi-part series investigating the historic Big Egg Wrestling Universe event hosted by All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling on November 20, 1994, that stands as the highest-grossing wrestling event put together by a women’s wrestling promotion.
The fifth match of Big Egg Wrestling Universe was the first non-professional wrestling contest of the event. Kumiko Maekawa and Sugar Miyuki met in a kickboxing match, capturing the multi combat sport spirit of the event. The fight was contested over five rounds, with two minutes for each round.
Interestingly, Kumiko Maekawa was also competing for All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (AJW) at the time, having already held the AJW Junior Championship. While Sugar Miyuki would become known as a pioneer for women’s boxing in Japan. Asian Boxing says the following regarding her influence.
A fighter you won’t easily find on boxrec, where she’s listed under her birth name of Nojima Miyuki and has an official record of 1-1. Miyuki was originally a Shoot Boxing fighter, a style more similar to kick boxing than regular boxing, but would turn to boxing in 1995, years before the JBC would recognise [sic] female boxing. In 1997 she would go on to win the IWBF Minimumweight title, becoming Japan’s first female world champion. Her work in boxing saw him raise the profile of the sport in the country, fighting exhibitions and working as a trainer. She would clearly kick start the female boxing movement in Japan, long before any of the others, and was a key factor in careers for the likes of Miki Kikukawa and Yumi Takano. She pre-dates the like of Feujin Raika by years and also played a role in showing that fighters could convert from one of Japan’s other combat sports leagues. Although Miyuki is only “officially” listed at 1-1 we know that’s wrong, due to footage of her and reliable sources, her impact is still being felt, directly and indirectly to this very day!
The fight saw Maekawa use her karate background to keep Sugar at bay with a plethora of powerful kicks, while Sugar relied on jabs and leg kicks to short the distance between her and her rangy foe. The early rounds saw Maekawa control the fight with her feet, consistently knocking Sugar on her back foot. Despite her best efforts, Miyuki didn’t have the power or technique in her jab to do much damage to Maekawa.
The later rounds saw Miyuki begin to score more with punches and low kicks, but she failed to sustain an attack throughout the entirety of a round without Maekawa effectively scoring points with her feet. Sugar came out in the fifth round looking for a knockout, but she couldn’t score any combinations and a spinning back fist missed its target. Sugar may have won the fifth round, yet it wasn’t enough to keep Maekawa from winning the fight by unanimous decision.
The fight was pretty decent, with both athletes giving a good effort.
