This Sunday, at the Tachikawa Stage Garden, Karen, the newly crowned Strawweight Queen of Pancrase, will return to action at Pancrase 329. With a record of 5-0, the now 19 year old champion is coming off the biggest win of her career, where she defeated Emi Fujino to win the title. Also on the card, the aforementioned Emi Fujino returns to action, Sayako returns for the first time since 2019, hot prospect Rei Tsuraya looks to continue his climb up the ranks, and Rizin veteran Akira will challenge Koshi Matsumoto for the Interim Lightweight Title.
Ahead of the event, we had a chance to sit down with the new champion and learn a bit more about her background, her future goals, and her thoughts on her upcoming fight. English subtitles are available.
Who is Karen?
Karen is the youngest of four siblings, all of whom have competed in MMA at one time or another. In the beginning, they fought as part of Team Date, but in June of 2021, Karen with her brother Darani and her sister Nøri formed their own team, called Team Pravajra, with Darani serving as the leader and coach and their mom as their manager. No one is involved outside of their family. They do not belong to a gym, they do not have a coach outside of Darani, and they only train together. They rent a private room at a local community center and that is where they train. It is under these conditions that Karen has put together an undefeated record of 5-0, with 4 finishes, defeated the veteran Emi Fujino, and became the youngest ever Pancrase champion.
Another thing that makes Team Pravajra unique is that since they were all part of Team Date, which is essentially an idol/talent group where the members also compete in martial arts, they all come from an entertainment background. For example, Hana and Nao Date have competed for Deep Jewels, Pancrase, and Road FC in the past, but they’re also a comedic duo called the ‘Beauty Sisters‘. During her time with Team Date, Karen competed in kickboxing, wrestled for Ice Ribbon, and also performed as a comedian. According to her old Team Date profile she was also on TV 11 times, was in a commercial, and she knows how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. In other words, Karen has been involved in the entertainment industry in one way or another since she was a kid.
Karen the Fighter
Like all the members of Team Pravajra, Karen’s style seems to have been greatly influenced by Taekwondo. This means that she utilizes a deep arsenal of kicks and prefers to keep fights at a kicking distance. However, there is one notable difference in their styles, something that makes Karen unique. Elbows. Karen loves to throw elbows, something that is still pretty rare on the Japanese scene. In fact, her past two wins have come via cuts caused by elbows and she has become so associated with them, that in the lead up to this fight, Pancrase wrote “her elbows thirst for blood.” While Karen tells us that that isn’t something she said, she did smile and tell us that her fight this Sunday is gonna be a blood festival.
From a young age, Karen has wanted to be a champion and since turning professional, she’s focused on that goal. More specifically, she’s wanted to fight on the global stage and become a UFC champion. Now that she’s won the Pancrase title, fighting for the UFC isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Pancrase has a long history of fighters going onto the Octagon. Just look at former champions Syuri Kondo, Rin Nakai, and Viviane Araújo, all of whom made their UFC debuts immediately after winning Pancrase titles. Outside of fighting for the UFC, Karen also told us that she’d like to become the first woman to defend her title in Pancrase, while helping to make the sport more popular and attracting more female fighters to the promotion.
How to Watch
Pancrase 329 will be aired live on Youtube. Here is the link. To join their Youtube page cost 1,790 yen a month, roughly $12.75 USD. As always, Stewart Fulton and Guy DeLumeau will be delivering the English commentary.
Date: Japan–> September 11, 2022 at 2:45 PM (U.S. EST –> September 11, 2022 at 1:45 AM)
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