World Series of Fighting signs Ashlee Evans-Smith, Emi Fujino to roster
It didn’t take long for Ashlee Evans-Smith to make it to MMA’s next level.
Evans-Smith (2-0), a little more than two months removed from her win over transgender fighter Fallon Fox (3-1) to win the Championship Fighting Alliance women’s featherweight tournament, has signed with World Series of Fighting.
Evans-Smith’s management at KO Dynasty confirmed the news to MMAjunkie and said the fighter will drop from featherweight to bantamweight to compete for WSOF.
In addition, the promotion has inked strawweight Emi Fujino (13-7), a source with knowledge of the contract told MMAjunkie. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the signing has not yet been made public.
Evans-Smith stopped Fox in the third round when she worked her way to mount and unleashed a barrage of strikes to get the win and a $20,000 bonus check. That win just her second as a pro after going 5-4 as an amateur, including a win over recent “TUF 18†competitor Jessamyn Duke – was apparently enough to have WSOF ask her to sign up.
Fujino has been fighting professionally for nearly 10 years, with all 20 of her pro fights taking place in her native Japan. “The Kamikaze Angel†went 2-1 in 2013, including a pair of submission wins. But in her most recent outing, in November, she was outpointed by Mizuki Inoue under the Deep-Jewels banner.
After starting her career 8-0, she hit a rough patch and lost five of six fights. But since then, she has gone 4-2 and now will get arguably her most significant exposure yet with WSOF.
World Series of Fighting recently began adding female fighters to its roster, and at WSOF 8 next month in Florida, Jessica Aguilar (16-4) will take on Alida Gray (4-0) for the promotion’s inaugural women’s strawweight title.
In addition, the promotion recently formed a partnership with longtime Japanese promotion Pancrase, and WSOF President Ray Sefo said he hopes his organization will have an event in Japan in early spring of 2014 – which could be tied in to the Fujino signing.
