Pancrase 331 set for this Sunday

This Sunday, Pancrase is set to hold 2 events at the New Pier Hall in Tokyo, Japan. In the morning, Pancrase 331 will take place, with an interesting assortment of veterans and newcomers ready to make a name for themselves and move up the rankings. Sogo-Kaku’s own CJ will be doing English commentary with Guy Delumeau, which will be accessible on Pancrase’s Youtube.

In the main event, number 1 ranked featherweight Nakada will face 8th ranked Miyake in a fight with title implications, since the champion, Isao, has signed with Bellator and interim champion Tokitaka will likely defend his title in the near future.

At 5-4, Nakada is coming off of a loss to Ashida at Rizin 39 last October. Before making his Rizin debut against Horie in 2021, he picked up wins over former Outsider Ryo and finished UFC veteran Issei Tamura.

Across the cage from Nakada will be Miyake, who is coming off a TKO win from last October. Interestingly, in the prior bout, he lost to Tamura.

Watanabe, a 22 year old native of Hokkaido, will be making her pro-debut against the 48 year old Raika. Going into the bout, Raika, a former boxing champion, is coming off 3 losses, while Watanabe is coming off her 2022 All Amateur Shooto Bantamweight Tournament victory.

This will be a classic grappler versus striker showdown. If Watanabe does well, Pancrase could be close to having 2 women champions from Hokkaido.

With 14 submissions on Hatta’s record and 1 on Wakabashi’s and no KO’s between them, it seems safe to say that these grapplers are going to look to get the bout to the ground.

To say that Hatta goes for the submission would be a massive understatement, as not only does he go for submissions, he goes for a variety of them. His record includes front chokes, RNCs, guillotines, armbars, and a heel hook.

While Wakabayashi may not have the experience of Hatta, at 5-1-1 he is a promising prospect. This will be his second fight in Pancrase and a win here would see him move up the rankings.

1/3 of Team Pravajra will be competing on Sunday, while the other 2 are set for Pancrase 333 in April, when Darani steps into the cage to face Nishio, who has a staggering 100% finish rate when he wins, with all his wins coming by knock out. Darani for his part, tends to utilize a kicking based style, reminiscent of Taekwondo, but with 4 submissions under his belt, he can also grapple. It is also worth noting that Darani, who is only 26 years old, somehow has 40 fights on his record, a testament to how active a lot of the Team Date fighters used to be.

Both fighters are coming off a loss, so this is a fight to stay relevant in the division.

Fight Card

  • Hirotaka Nakada vs Kisa Miyake (Feather 3R)
  • Raika Endo vs Fumiko Watanabe (Fly 3R)
  • Ryo Hatta vs Kohei Wakabayashi (Straw 3R)
  • Darani Pravajra vs Shinsuke Nishio (Light 3R)
  • Yohei Nada vs Yoshito Itokawa (Feather 3R)
  • Mitsuhiro Taki vs Cyber Ryo (Bantam 3R)
  • Kohei Maeda vs Kento Imai (Fly 3R)

How to Watch

All Pancrase PPV’s can be watched by subscribing to their Youtube channel, which is 1,790 yen a month. This event will have English and Japanese commentary.

Pancrase 331 and 332 both take place on the same day, meaning you can access both by subscribing for March.

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