Mariko Yoshida vs Hiromi Yagi (ARSION - 05/04/1999)

The semi-finals of the ARS '99 tournament is a rematch of their February classic. Yoshida comes into this with two taped-up arms after a difficult encounter against Yumi Fukawa earlier in the show, and Yagi exploits this to the fully, using a pre-match handshake to sucker Yoshida into an armbar. For the rest of the match, Yagi zeros in on the left arm of Yoshida, and is utterly relentless in her attack, slapping on armbar after armbar to try and tap Yoshida out. This creates for a really great dynamic shift from their last match, where there's a lot of desperation in Yoshida's offence, while Yagi is dominant, and even cocky on occasion. Of course, Yoshida is a grappling master so is often able to escape and lock in submissions of her own, but she often has to switch submissions or even let go of them entirely because of the pain in her arm. A more than worthy follow-up of their title match.