Yumi and Megumi were on a morning run as Coach Satoko received notification about the tournament.
The roster was about to be announced. She received an email listing the participants in the tournament. There were a few familiar names and a few unknown boxers. Which was only natural considering that everyone was still only a four rounder.
The list read as follows:
5-1
5-1
6-0
5-0
4-0
4-0
4-1
5-0
Coach Satoko had heard of Michelle Tyson. She was a girl that had finished every single opponent this far in the first round. She had also heard the name Lily Yamato. But not in boxing. Lily Yamato was a famous amateur volleyball player that appeared on television.
Satoko had no idea that she had become a professional boxer. But after watching some video footage, Satoko immediately knew that Lily was the real deal. In order to qualify for the Rookie tournament, the boxer had to be a C licensed 4 round boxer and have no more than 6 fights. The standard Rookie tournament rules used to set the limit to 4 professional bouts, but in the women's ranks, it's much harder to find quality contestants with so little experience. Another difference between the Rookie Queen and Rookie King tournament was the tournament size. In the Rookie King tournament, the competition is divided first into East and West before resulting in an All Japan Rookie King Final. The female boxing scene didn't have that much depth or width. So, there JBC decided to consolidate North, South, East, West of Japan into a single 8 woman tournament. Wild Roses promotions were really going for broke this year on the promotion side. You could tell that they didn't spare a single coin in producing all of the build up promotion and advertisement.
Yumi and Megumi came back from roadwork in time to watch the announcement on television. The tournament was being covered in a 20 minute special. Each fighter's highlights were played. Upon which it became plainly obvious how much stronger the opponents would be compared to Yumi's opposition thus far.
The TV special seemed to be setting up a story for a final between Lily Yamato against Michelle Tyson.
Several interviews with pundits mentioned that black and white athletes were simply far too big and powerful for oriental athletes.
Finally, the TV special played Yumi's highlights. In her short career thus far, Yumi had already made some great highlight reel moments. But Coach Satoko immediately scoffed.
Satoko: None of this shows you getting hit by the same overhand over and over..
Megumi: (Who's side are you on...)
Satoko: Anyway, that's better for us. This special makes you look like a monster. Whoever you fight first will be wary at the very least.
After each participant was covered, the tournament bracket was finally about to be revealed.
Quarter Final:
Son Yumi Vs Minatsu Takano
Noriko Kameda Vs Michelle Tyson
Lily Yamato Vs Karin Matsumura
Mika Mihara Vs Nanaka Sugihara
Yumi was relieved to see Nanaka had qualified for the tournament. And because Nanaka was on the opposite side of the tournament bracket, a final between the two of them was possible.
The quarter finals were set for less than 2 months from today. The Takanashi Gym immediately went into fight camp mode.
Episode End
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