This Sunday, on Christmas Eve, Pancrase will return to the Yokohama Budokan for their final event of the year. Included on the card is the opening round of their Atomweight tournament, where the ultimate winner will be crowned the inaugural Atomweight Queen of Pancrase. In the opening round, Satomi Takano will face Zenny Huang and V.V Mei will face Sayako Fujita.
We had a chance to go to Pancraseism Yokohama and watch Satomi train. Afterwards we spoke to her about her career and her upcoming fight at Pancrase 340.
31 fights over 8 promotions by 33 years old
Going into the Atomweight tournament, Satomi Takano will be the 2nd most experienced fighter, with 31 pro MMA bouts under her belt, just 6 shy of V.V Mei, who turns 41 in February. Throughout her career, which started when she was still in college, Takano has fought for Deep, Shooto, One, PXC, Road FC, Jewels, Deep Jewels, and Rizin. However, in an ironic twist for someone who trains at a gym called Pancraseism, she’s never fought for Pancrase. That is set to change this Sunday.
While we were talking, I asked Satomi about her career and any memories that stick out. She responded with fighting for Road FC in 2014. It was her first fight abroad, her first fight in front of a large crown (over 5,000), and she fought and defeated Song Ga Yeon, a tv personality turned roundgirl turned fighter, who was getting a lot of attention at the time. During and after the fight Satomi mentioned that she could feel all the support coming from Japan.
Looking back over her career, Satomi laughed and told us that she had no idea she’d be fighting this long when she started. Back then, she had joined Club Barbarian in Toyama to improve her Judo, before transitioning to Jiu-Jitsu, then ultimately MMA. MMA was just something she wanted to try after watching gym-mate Miku compete. For something that she just wanted to try, she is now set to fight for her 9th promotion, 11 years into her career.
Making her Pancrase debut
Back in May, Satomi fought Ayaka Watanabe and lost her Shooto title after getting TKO’d in the 1st round. Piling on to that, she also suffered an injury. As can be expected after a setback, she was wondering what to do next, thinking about possibly retiring, when she received an offer from Pancrase to take part in this upcoming tournament. According to her, the timing couldn’t have been better. It actually reminds her of when the One Warrior Series was canceled due to the pandemic and Shooto came along with an offer. It seems like whenever a door closes for her, another opens at the perfect time.
This Sunday and the tournament
When Satomi steps into the cage at Pancrase 340, she will be facing Taiwan’s Zenny Huang, who is riding a 2 fight win streak since coming to Japan last year. When asked about her, Satomi told us she thinks Zenny is a tenacious and strong competitor. She also added that she’s glad Zenny’s in the tournament because it makes it more interesting/exciting to have foreign fighters included.
When asked about the other girls in the tournament, Satomi didn’t have a lot to say about Sayako, simply saying she’s got a scary atmosphere around her, before moving on to V.V Mei who she called a very strong fighter, who’s been a strong for a long time. In fact, the two actually fought before, back in 2015. That fight was so long ago, that according to Satomi she’s become a completely different fighter, telling us that she’s gotten better at both striking and grappling. But more importantly, she says she’s also improved her mentality, thinking about her opponents before the fight and forming a game plan.
When looking at her fellow tournament participants, she boldly added that it’s not that she wants to win the title, it’s that she thinks she has to beat these girls. Especially Mei, who she said wants to overtake.
The future
Throughout our conversation, it became clear that Satomi is very passionate abut fighting abroad. She lit up when talking about her time fighting for Road, One, and PXC, adding that at this point, she either wants to fight abroad again or fight in Rizin after winning this tournament.
However, she’s realistic and understands that not a lot of promotions have Atomweight divisions, but she did say she’d be willing to fight almost anywhere.
How to Watch
Japanese Broadcast
Kenji Osawa, Tatsuhiko Nishi, Shintaro Ishiwatari
- U-Next
- Pancrase’s Youtube Channel (1,790 Yen a month)
English Broadcast
Stewart Fulton & Guy DeLumeau
- via Tiget (2,000 Yen)
Pancrase 340 Card
- Genpei Hayashi vs Ryuichiro Sumimura (Welterweight Title Bout)
- Seiichiro Ito vs Naoki Arikawa (Flyweight Interim Title Bout)
- Yasuhiro Kawamura vs Tokitaka Nakanishi (Bantamweight Title Bout)
- Yusuke Kasuya vs Tatsuya Saika
- Sayako Fujita vs V.V. Mei
- Zenny Huang vs Satomi Takano
- Shinsuke Kamei vs Naoki Hirata
- Ryogo Takahashi vs Sang Won Kim
- Ryo vs Yuito Yanagawa
- Muhammad Salohidinov vs Toki Matsui
- Yuki Kondo vs Wataru Miki
- Ryo Tajima vs Kunihisa Sasa
- Takahiro Kawanaka vs Shogo Sato
- Genta Shindo vs Misaki Umehara
English 
Japanese