This Monday, Pancrase 326 went down at the Belle Salle Takadanobaba in Tokyo, Japan. It was their first of event of the year and it didn’t disappoint. Three new champions were crowned, including Team Pravajra’s Karen, a former member of Team Date. At just 18 years of age and having graduated from high school last week, she made the most of her opportunity and is now the youngest Queen of Pancrase in the promotion’s history. However, it was not an easy task. Across the cage from her was the then champion Emi Fujino, who started fighting before Karen was even a year old. Fujino is an established veteran of the sport, who has faced almost every notable Strawweight to come out of Asia in the past 10 years and while she is in her 40’s now, she is still a very physically strong fighter. Her physicality looked to play a major factor in Fujino’s game plan, as she repeatedly pushed Karen to the cage, clinched with her, and tried to bully her. However, Karen never stopped throwing strikes, even when she was on the bottom she threw heel strikes to Fujino’s calf, somewhat reminiscent to Royce Gracie and his liver kicks. When she had her back to the cage, Karen threw knees and kicked at Fujino’s heavily taped knee. When she had space to work, she through side kicks, landed a grazing high kick, and came forward with punches. As time went on, it looked like the grinding style was taking a toll on Fujino’s stamina and she tried to take Karen down with a throw. Karen was able to counter the throw, got on top of Fujino, landed two hard elbows before transitioning to a rear naked choke. She got her arm under Fujino’s chin but Fujino was using both her hands to keep Karen from locking the choke on. However, it didn’t matter as the elbows had opened a nasty cut on Fujino’s forehead and all the pressure on her neck had caused blood to spurt out, causing the referee, Windy Sunaba, to jump in and call the fight.
What’s next?
Pancrase has a history of producing top female talent. There have been three Strawweight Queens of Pancrase before Karen. The first champion was Syuri Kondo who went to the UFC, then it was Viviane Araujo, who also went to the UFC, and then most recently it was Emi Fujino, who fought for the Rizin title after becoming the champion. With such a track-record of producing top talent, it will be interesting to see what Karen does next. She has expressed interest in fighting for Rizin and abroad in the past and now as a champion, these opportunities are likely to present themselves. With Rizin expressing interest in a Super Atomweight Tournament this year, it makes one wonder whether or not Karen can make it down, as she would be an interesting participant.
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Pancrase 326 Full Results
- Satoru Enomoto defeated Toru Ogawa via UD to become the new Flyweight Champion
- Karen defeated Emi Fujino via TKO (Cut) at 3:18 of RD 4 to become the new Strawweight Champion
- Yura Naito defeated Ryo “Rocky” Kawamura via KO (left hook) at 0:42 of RD 1 to win the vacant Middleweight Championship
- Shinsuke Kamei defeated Hirotaka Nakada via SD
- Tatsuhiko Iwamoto defeated Ryo Asami via Sub (armlock) at 3:17 of RD 1
- Koshi Matsumoto defeated Kazuki Kasai via SD
- Kohei Maeda defeated Yuki Tashiro via TKO (punches, ground) at 2:16 of RD 1
- Tokitaka Nakanishi defeated Yohei Nada via Sub (RNC) at 1:31 of RD 2
- Yojiro Uchimura defeated Raiki Endo via SD
- Toshiya Takashima defeated Tatsuki Ozaki via Sub (RNC) at 1:54 of RD 1
- Darani defeated Takuma Watabe via Sub (RNC) at 0:38 of RD 1
- Kosei Takahashi defeated Yuta Nakamura via TKO (punches, ground) at 2:40 of RD 1
- Jinnosuke Kashimura defeated Reo Hansen via Sub (triangle choke) at 0:58 of RD 2
- Yoshiki Uematsu defeated Masaya Oshiro via UD
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