{"id":150008,"date":"2026-03-27T12:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/150008\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T12:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:39:16","slug":"sumiko-inaba-determined-to-build-on-lessons-learned-ahead-of-pfl-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/150008\/","title":{"rendered":"Sumiko Inaba determined to build on lessons learned ahead of PFL Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nA
\nhigh-stakes middleweight clash headlines PFL Pittsburgh: Tune in
\nLIVE, Saturday, March 28 at 10 p.m. ET<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sumiko
\nInaba<\/a> already tested herself against the best the
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a> women\u2019s flyweight division has to
\noffer, and she hopes to learn from those lessons.<\/p>\n

Inaba will welcome
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> castoff Ariane
\nLipski da Silva<\/a> to the promotion when they collide in a
\nfeatured
\nPFL Pittsburgh<\/a> attraction on Saturday at the UPMC Events
\nCenter. Armed with a Top 5 ranking at 125 pounds, she plans to
\nbreak through to the top of the weight class. Inaba last appeared
\nat PFL Champions Series 2, where she dropped a three-round
\nunanimous decision to budding superstar Dakota
\nDitcheva<\/a> on July 19. Though she fell short in her bid to upset
\nthe undefeated
\nAmerican Top Team<\/a> export, the insight the bout provided was
\ninvaluable.
\n
\n\u201cIt was an amazing experience to fight someone at that level, to
\ntest myself at that level. I couldn\u2019t be more proud to have done
\nthat,\u201d Inaba told Sherdog.com. \u201cNo matter how the fight was going,
\nI just wanted to prove that I could stick in there for the whole 15
\nminutes and still try to come up with something. She is who she is,
\nand she did a great job, too. I felt I didn\u2019t really get to
\nimplement any kind of game plan with that. Dakota\u2019s just very good
\nat what she does. My game plan kind of went out the window with
\nthat one. Being in a cage with someone [like Ditcheva], I have to
\ngive myself that respect. I don\u2019t sometimes see myself at that
\nlevel, but it\u2019s a reality check for me and I have to believe in
\nthat. I\u2019m carrying that confidence into this [next] fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inaba now turns her attention to Lipski da Silva, a former
\nKonfrontacja Sztuk Walki<\/a> champion for whom she has a great deal
\nof respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a great opponent, a UFC vet,\u201d Inaba said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a great
\nname for me to go up against and get a win over. I think styles
\nmake fights, and it\u2019s going to be great. She likes to stand, and
\nI\u2019ve also seen her win by submission. She has it all. She mixes it
\nall up. It\u2019s going to be a good challenge for me to use all my
\ntools, as well. I\u2019m going to be able to show that I\u2019ve trained very
\nhard for this one, and I\u2019m excited it\u2019s in Pittsburgh. My last
\nfight in South Africa was craziness. Getting there was craziness.
\nWe had some hiccups travel-wise, losing my bags. It was a whole
\nordeal, so just to be back in the [United] States, I\u2019m excited for
\nthat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Crazy to see my name in the Top 5\u2019
\n
\nPlenty of intrigue still surrounds Inaba. With the PFL\u2019s new
\nrankings system in place and a move away from the tournament
\nformat, she believes the company will continue to establish itself
\nas a power in the MMA marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being with PFL has been a great experience,\u201d Inaba said. \u201cIt
\nwas a different thing at first, but now I feel like things are
\nfinding a rhythm towards a better direction. The rankings were a
\nbit of a reality check, as well. At first, I didn\u2019t believe it, but
\nit\u2019s crazy to see my name in the Top 5 position. I can\u2019t wait to
\nshow everybody why I have that position. It\u2019s a great test for me
\ngetting to fight someone who has been through this sport and put
\nthemselves in this position. It\u2019s a big position for both of us.
\nI\u2019m so ready for this fight.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A high-stakes middleweight clash headlines PFL Pittsburgh: Tune in LIVE, Saturday, March 28 at 10 p.m. ET. Sumiko…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1165,139,73,75,74,68393],"class_list":["post-150008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-article","tag-news","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-womenu2019s-mma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}