Yuki Motoya defends title vs. Victor Henry at DEEP 88 Impact
After he was all-but confirmed for DEEP’s loaded supershow in March, there was one opponent champion Yuki Motoya asked for, and that was Victor Henry. Well, he got it.
Yuki Motoya confirmed the bout on his Instagram.
Yuki Motoya (23-5, 1NC) has looked sensational since the loss to Horiguchi in mid-2017, winning five straight. The CB IMPACT athlete defeated UFC-veteran Justin Scoggins a couple weeks back at RIZIN 14 with an early teepee choke submission. Before this he did nearly two months of training in Brazil, this by all accounts really helped his striking and grappling game.
Prior to the Scoggins win, Motoya defeated the likes of Jae Hoon Moon and Kazuma Sone before winning the vacant DEEP Bantamweight Championship with a third-round submission win against Makoto Kamaya at DEEP 86 Impact back in October. He will defend this title in March.
Opposite him come DEEP 88 Impact will be Josh Barnett pupil, Victory Henry (16-4) out of California. The SoCal product has spent the vast majority of his career competing in Japan, becoming a bit of a staple in DEEP and Pancrase.
As a streaking prospect back in 2015, Henry took on Shintaro Ishiwatari in a Pancrase bantamweight title challenge but sadly came up short. In his next three outings, he would go 1-2 but has since returned to form by winning four straight. “La Mangosta” followed up a KO win over RIZIN veteran Takafumi Otsuka at DEEP 85 Impact in August by returning to California and taking out DWTNCS veteran Kyler Phillips. Last month he traveled to Russia, defeating Denis Lavrentyev at RCC 5.
This event will be DEEP 88 Impact x DEEP JEWELS 23, and the show is supposed to be loaded with champions and RIZIN vets. On the Impact portion, expect Haruo Ochi to join Roque Martinez and Yuki Motoya. On the JEWELS portion, along with Kanna and Maesawa, expect King Reina, Kana Watanabe, Nanaka Kawamura, Emi Tomimatsu, and more.
The show goes down on March 9, and the promotion will also reach out to Alyssa Garcia & Rin Nakai, according to reports.
