This Sunday, Pancrase celebrated their 30th Anniversary at the Tachikawa Stage Garden in Tokyo, Japan. With Minoru Suzuki in attendance, Nuguru Sii put on an unbelievable performance in the main event, rising to the occasion and brawling with almost no defense before winning the Featherweight title with a leg-scissor choke. With 337 in the books, Pancrase will hold 338 and 339 on November 12th, and they will look to continue their 30th Anniversary celebration on December 24th, with their 30th Anniversary Part II show, where the first round of their Atomweight tournament will take place.
Suguru Nii brings crowd to their feet, finishes Kamei with Leg Scissor Choke
Suguru Nii is an interesting character. He has a popular Youtube channel with over 300,000,000 views, he works as security for clubs in Roppongi and Shibuya, he’s an Outsider veteran, and now he’s the new Featherweight King of Pancrase. Going into the fight he was riding a 3 fight win-streak, all coming by finish, while his opponent, Shinsuke Kamei was the number one ranked Featherweight in the promotion.
In the opening round, the two circled and felt each other out for the first half, until Nii shot in for a takedown, clinched with Kamei against the cage, and threw him to the ground. Once it hit the ground, everyone knew what was coming next as Nii went for an armlock immediately. Unable to get it, he threw some punches and elbows to the body from the north-south position before locking on a leg-scissor choke. However, Kamei was able to escape and get back to his feet, where the two started to brawl, with Kamei hurting Nii with punches. He wasn’t able to capitalize though as a hurt Nii threw him to the ground again and immediately started going for a scarf-hold before time ran out. Thanks to the open scoring, everyone knew that the judges awarded the opening round to Nii.
In the 2nd round, Kamei looked to build on his success in the striking and landed some punches on Nii to which Nii responded by coming forward, brawling, throwing uppercuts and hooks. As they brawled, Kamei bloodied Nii’s nose and Nii looked hurt, but instead of retreating he came forward again with punches. He then shot for a single, used it to take Kamei’s back and got it to the ground, where he simultaneously went for an armlock and a leg-scissor choke, ultimately choking Kamei unconscious.
When the finish happened, the crowd went nuts, with a lot of those in attendance looking like they came specifically to see Nii fight. With this win, he picked up his second leg-scissor choke finish in MMA, won the Featherweight title, and picked up two bonuses, one for best fight of the night and one for best submission. Now riding a 4 fight win-streak, it will be interesting to see what is next for the popular champion.
Karen defeats Chiyo, shows improved grappling and elbows
In the sole women’s bout of the night, former Strawweight Champion Karen looked to get back to her winning ways against Chiyo Takamoto, a young fighter who made her debut earlier this year. Going into the fight, Karen has made some drastic changes to her training and is now training full-time at Paraestra Kashiwa, the home of Kanna Asakura, Rei Tsuraya, and Ougikubo.
Throughout the first and most of the second round, Karen and Chiyo primarily clinched, with Karen holding Chiyo against the cage while she threw knees. However, late in the second, things did change when Karen came forward aggressively with some punches and Chiyo ducked under and took her down. Once there, Chiyo took Karen’s back and went for a RNC before transitioning to an armbar. However, Karen had clearly prepared for this and was able to defend.
In the 3rd round they once again clinched in the beginning, but Karen was more aggressive, throwing slashing elbows and knees. This led to Chiyo trying to take Karen down, but Karen countered it and wound up in side-control, where she threw elbows and punches while Chiyo tried to regain half-guard. They then scrambled, with Karen landing more elbows and punches until she got into full-mount and then tried to take Chiyo’s back during a scramble, but Chiyo was able to roll into her guard.
With this win, Karen showed some growth in her grappling and importantly got back into the win column. When we spoke to her ahead of the fight, she’d mentioned that if she won she’d like to fight on Pancrase’s December show and as she didn’t look to get injured that seems like a real possibility. However, since Karen has mentioned that her goal is to compete at Strawweight in the UFC one day, it doesn’t seem likely we will see her competing in the Atomweight Tournament.
Sumimura survives the grappling scare, TKO’s Fujita
Right before the bell rang, Sumimura’s corner could be heard telling him not to be worried, this is an MMA fight, not a BJJ match. Well that didn’t appear to be the case, at least in the beginning.
Fujita opened the fight with his version of Tenshin’s rolling thunder and while it missed horribly, it allowed him to shoot into a single, which then allowed him to take Sumimura’s back and get the match to the ground. All in under 30 seconds. He then proceeded to threaten with a RNC, an armbar, a triangle, and a heel hook. However as the round went on, Sumimura started to take charge and landed some GNP. Unfortunately, he accidentally landed some punches to the back of Fujita’s head and a pause was called. After things resumed, Fujita landed a hard kick and thew Sumimura to the ground as the round ended.
In the second round, Fujita once again threw Sumimura to the ground and went for a guillotine choke, but Sumimura managed to escape. It looked like Fujita exerted himself a lot on the attempt and Sumimura started to land some good GNP from Fujita’s guard. Fujita briefly went on the offense again and went for an armbar, but Sumimura was able to escape and land some big punches and elbows that forced the ref to jump in.
With this win, Sumimura has now won three in a row and looks to be on his way towards a shot at the title.
Salodhidinov makes statement in pro-debut
Salodhidinov is an IMMAF champion originally from Tajikistan who has a Judo and Sambo background and while Akiba had a clear experience advantage going into the match, with 25 pro fights, Muhhamad showed why he’s a highly touted prospect. Outside of an early heel hook attempt from Akiba, he used his Sambo and Judo to smother Akiba, landing punches whenever he could, doing what looked like his best Khabib impression.
In the second round, he once again smothered Akiba, took his back on the ground against the cage, got to full mount and landed some big punches and elbows. Aside from a choke attempt, he continued to land methodical hard elbows, until the ref finally stopped it.
With a debut like this, it’s safe to say that Pancrase has added an interesting Flyweight to the division, who made it clear in his post-fight speech that he’s coming for the belt.
Kawamura makes quick work of Imura
With over 20 fights under his belt and having fought in Rizin, Kawamura showed that he was too much for the younger Imura. In the beginning, he bounced around, with his hands low, pumping a good jab, which prompted Imura to shoot in for the double-leg takedown. Unfortunately for Imura, Kawamura, who had his back to the cage, was able to lock on a D’arce choke and choke Imura unconscious. With this win, he’s now won two in a row since losing to Yamaniha in Rizin. Interestingly, his past three wins have all come via D’arce choke.
Still undefeated in Pancrase, Hirata defeats tough Endo
The older brother of the popular Itsuki Hirata, Naoki remained undefeated in Pancrase, overcoming an extremely tough Raiki Endo in the process. Throughout the first two rounds, Hirata utilized his grappling to clinch with Endo and get him to the ground, with his biggest success coming near the end of the first, when he got Endo’s back.
However Endo did not intend on going down easy and thanks to the open scoring, he knew he was losing. As a result, he came out aggressive in the third, looking for a finish and after some clinching, he escaped with about a minute left and absolutely exploded onto Naoki, throwing everything he had desperately trying to get a finish. Eventually, he wound up in Naoki’s half-guard where he landed punches and elbows, but time ran out.
With the win, Naoki remains undefeated in Pancrase and arguably beat his toughest opponent to date.
Quick Results
- Suguru Nii defeated Shinsuke Kamei via @ Leg Scissor Choke 2:32 of RD 2*
- Ryuichiro Sumimura defeated Hiroshi Fujita via TKO @ 4:59 of RD 2
- Ryohei Kurosawa defeated Ryo Hatta via UD
- Kota Osuman defeated Takahiro Kawanaka via KO @ 2:32 of RD 1
- Yasuhiro Kawamura defeated Rui Imura via Darce Choke @ 0:56 of RD 1
- Naoki Hirata defeated Raiki Endo via UD
- Muhammad Salohidinov defeated Taiki Akiba via TKO @ 2:42 of RD 2
- Daichi Kamiya defeated Yuri Amari via UD
- Hotaka Ando defeated Reo Yamaguchi via SD
- Kazuki Kasai defeated Takahashi Matsuoka via UD
- Karen defeated Chiyo Takamoto via UD
- Kunihisa Sasa defeated Ryo Yazawa via UD
- Chisei Yohena defeated Misako Umehara via UD
- Shogo Sato defeated Sean Watanabe via TKO @ 0:35 of RD 1
* Nii won the vacant Featherweight title in the process
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