Pancrase 321 -

Over the weekend, Pancrase held their first event in Tokyo and their first numbered event of the year, Pancrase 321. There were a number of exciting fights but the stand out was obviously the main event between Isao Kobayashi and Taichi Nakajima. Both are 32 years old, have a ton of experience, and came into the match well conditioned, which led to a back and forth match that had the crowd on the edge of their seats. Nakajima may have lost the fight, but he showed great determination and some slick skills. His record of 15-11 does not accurately reflect his skill level. With this win, Isao has now won 6 in a row and defended his title 3 times, we may see him on a bigger stage soon.

Atmosphere

The event was held at Studio Coast, which has served as Pancrase’s home base sense Differ Ariake was closed in 2018. When the fans made their way into the venue, they passed a food truck associated with Pancrase fighter Ryo Hatta.

満を持して5月30日PANCRASE321スタジオコーストで僕の会社のキッチンカーが出店させて頂きます🤤
極上のハンバーガーが会場で食べれますよー🍔🍔🍔 pic.twitter.com/tptwg4DIfE
— 八田亮 Ryo Hatta (@hattaryo0706) May 18, 2021

Once inside, fans lined up to have their temperatures taken and passed a Pancrase merchandise booth, staffed by Emi Tomimatsu. Studio Coast is a night club on weekends and there are traces of that in the setup, between the giant disco ball that hangs over the cage and the VIP lounge, where Akira Maeda mingled when he wasn’t cage-side. As far as venues go, it makes sense why Pancrase has chosen it to be their home as it doesn’t look to have a bad seat and has a fun atmosphere.

Nori Date defeated Emiko Raika by UD

Before the fight, we had a chance to speak to Nori who admitted she had never faced anyone with Emiko’s boxing credentials before, so she was planning to use her kicks to avoid boxing exchanges. This ended up being the case, as for a majority of the fight, Nori circled away from Emiko and landed kicks almost at will, including a nasty hook kick which seemed to temporarily stun her opponent. Emiko spent most of the match chasing Nori, only landing a few punches. However, those punches did appear to affect Nori when they landed and afterwards Nori could be seen holding a bag of ice over her eye in the crowd. This was Nori’s first fight in roughly a year and a half and her second fight in roughly 4 years so it will be interesting to see what happens. She did mention that she wants to become the Pancrase champion so it seems likely that we will see her back in action soon.

Nakada outlasts Tamura

With 5 KO’s coming from punches, Tamura was looking for his 6th, but it wasn’t to be. Tamura unloaded haymakers, which echoed throughout the venue when they landed, and drew cheers from the crowd, but as the round went on, it became more and more obvious that he was exhausting himself. Once he punched himself out, Nakada pushed him to the cage and unloaded a combo which crumpled Tamura to the mat causing his corner to throw in the towel.

Ryo renders Nakanishi unconscious as final bell rings

At 36, Ryo is a veteran of The Outsider who returned to MMA after a 2 year absence. He notably takes private lessons with Rings founder Maeda, where he does over 1,000 Hindu squats a week. With Maeda cage-side, Ryo came from behind and defeated Nakanishi with essentially no time left on the clock. Near the end of the fight he locked on a guillotine choke but Nakanishi didn’t tap. When Ryo let go after the bell rang it became clear that Nakanishi was unconscious and the fight was waved off, with the official time of the stoppage being 4:59 of the last round.

Flyweight Interim Championship Match Set

Ueda defeated Satoru via Split Decision and will now face former ranger Ogawa for the Flyweight Interim Championship. Ogawa picked up a much needed win and broke his streak of alternating wins and losses, which went back to 2017. This will be the 3rd match between the two, with Ueda having won by SD and KO before.

Akira TKO’s Matsumoto

Akira and Matsumoto fought in a classic matchup of power-puncher versus tactician. Akira was the aggressor throughout the fight, chasing the former Shooto Champion, who peppered him with jabs in return. The first two rounds were fairly close, evidenced by the fact that two judges thought Akira won the first two rounds where a third judge thought Matsumoto had won them. In what might have been started by a clash of heads, Akira stunned Matsumoto and finished him in the third round. With this victory, he has now won 2 fights in a row by KO/TKO and appears to have rebounded from a 4 fight slump.

Here is a video of Ishiwatari feeding Akira a banana after the fight:

2戦連続元チャンピオンをKO🍌🦍 pic.twitter.com/Z67Thj6Wx7
— 石渡伸太郎 (@caveshinta) May 30, 2021

Random Thoughts

Rui Imura had the best post-fight speech of the night, simply stating “This is my first time on the mic, that is all” to laughter from the crowd.
Team Date was in attendance to support Nori and Satoshi Date was also supposed to be on the card. It will be interesting to see what future involvement there will be.
Pancrase utilized open-scoring for the event.
Karen Date, Darani Date, and Satoshi Date will all be on the next card, Pancrase 322.
Undefeated prospects Keito Yamakita and Kouki Nakagawa both also have fights on Pancrase 322.