This Sunday, Pancrase is holding their biggest even of the year at the Tachikawa Stage Garden in Tokyo, Japan. To call this card packed would be a massive understatement. There are 4 title fights, with Kume taking on Akira, Nakajima taking on Tajima, Karen taking on Salt, and Hashi taking on Nøri. Elsewhere on the card, Fujino and UFC-vet Michinori Tanaka are also returning to action. Also, with Pancrase on U-Next, PPV, and Youtube, it has never been easier to watch.
Karen vs Salt II
Ahead of Pancrase 330 in December, many expected Karen to defeat the 1-2 Salt, who was making her promotional debut. However, Salt was able to use her height and reach advantage to frustrate Karen. Not only did she counter Karen’s sidekicks, a staple of Team Pravajra, she also controlled the action in the clinch and countered Karen’s takedown attempts, ending up on top herself. In beating Karen, she earned this chance to bring the belt back to Hokkaido.
Ahead of their first fight, fellow champion Rei Tsuraya, the son of the head coach at Paraestra Kashiwa, invited Karen to stop by, so she went with her former teammate Nøri. However, since losing, Karen has gotten more serious, telling the media that since she wanted to get stronger and aim higher, she’s officially joined Paeraestra, having moved on from Team Pravajra. She’s even gone as far as to remove Pravajra from her Twitter handle. Prior to training at her new gym, Karen was only able to train with Nøri and Darani, meaning that her pool of training partners has drastically expanded, including strong women like Kanna Asakura.
The challenger, Salt, comes from an amateur kickboxing background, but unlike Karen, she wasn’t involved in martial arts as child. She didn’t get into kickboxing until she was older and only got involved in MMA because she was having a hard time finding opponents at her weight. Despite being 32, Salt just made her pro-debut in January of 2022 and has struggled against wrestlers and grapplers while doing well against strikers, so it will be interesting to see how Karen, who comes from a striking background, adapts for the rematch. Also, for those that are curious, Salt took her ring name from the Angelina Jolie movie because she thought Angelina looked cool, but also admitted that she’s actually never seen the movie. This fight on Sunday, will be her first 5 round fight and only her 2nd fight with 3 or more rounds, so it will be interesting to see how her stamina holds up.
Takayo Hashi vs Nøri II
In 2021, long-time veteran Takayo Hashi defeated Nøri, who was 21 years younger than her, to win the interim Flyweight Championship. This title was created because then champion Sidy Rocha wasn’t able to compete in Pancrase due to the pandemic. However, when she wasn’t able to defend this year due to an injury, she was stripped of the title and Hashi was promoted to full champion.
Now, 2 years later, Hashi is ready to step back into the cage and defender her title against a familiar face, Nøri. Nøri for her part, has fought twice since, including a brawl against Aoi Kuriyama, where she battled back after a tough opening round, where she was dropped several times, to earn a draw. If Nøri can win the title, there is potential for her and Karen to both be champions at the same time.
Emi Fujino vs Edna II
In 2019 at Pancrase 208, Emi Fujino won the opening round in her bout against Edna Oliveira. While she may have been en route to a victory, the fight ended abruptly in the beginning of the 2nd round when Enda broke her wrist and wasn’t able to continue. Since then, both fighters have kept busy, with Emi competing 4 times and Edna competing 6 times.
In addition to keeping busy, they’ve both also faced some hardships, with Edna currently riding a 4-fight losing streak and Emi suffering a series of injuries. In fact, ahead of this fight, Emi suffered a cut over her eye and due to the close-proximity to the fight, she wasn’t able to get stitches. Going back a little further, she broke her hand in her fight with Watanabe last October and prior to her fight with Hamasaki, she had Osteonecrosis in her knee.
Apparently, her knee was so bad that her doctor told her she wouldn’t be able to fight again, but unexpectedly, her knee improved. This wasn’t the first time a doctor told her she wouldn’t be able to compete anymore, as she was told the same thing after injuring her leg in a motorcycle accident early in her career. Despite these injuries, Emi did reveal that she’s currently broken her deadlift record, meaning she’s potentially physically stronger than ever.
How to watch
Pancrase Youtube Channel
- Commentary: Japanese (K. Osawa, T. Nishi)
- Price: 1,790 Yen a month ($13.35)
- Link
TIGET
- Commentary: Japanese (K. Osawa, T. Nishi)
- Price: 2,000 Yen ($14.90)
- Link
TIGET (English)
- Commentary: English (S. Fulton, G. DeLumeau)
- Price: 2,000 Yen ($14.90)
- Link
Abema
- Commentary: Japanese (K. Osawa, T. Nishi)
- Price: Abema Premium or 800 coins
- Link
U-Next
- Commentary: Japanese (K. Osawa, T. Nishi)
- Price: U-Next Membership
- Link
Fight Card
- Takasuke Kume vs Akira Okada (Lightweight Title Bout)
- Tachi Nakajima vs Ryo Tajima (Bantamweight Title Bout)
- Karen vs Salt (Strawweight Title Bout)
- Takayo Hashi vs Nøri (Flyweight Title Bout)
- Rui Imura vs Hayato Ishii
- Shinsuke Kamei vs Jae Hyuk Bang
- Michinori Tanaka vs Kunihisa Sasa
- Koshi Matsumoto vs Nurzhanov Rustambek
- Emi Fujino vs Edna Oliveira Ajala
- Naoki Arikawa vs Colton Kielbasa
- Takashi Matsuoka vs Yuki Okano
- Yusuke Kasuya vs Kazuki Kasai
- Kodai Murata vs Ryo Yazawa
- Chiyo Takamoto vs Honoka Shigeta
- Kaneaki Watanabe vs Naoki Hirata
Japanese 
English