This past Sunday, Pancrase put on their first two numbered events of the year, Pancrase 331 and 332. While 332 did lose it’s main event, it was rescheduled for 333 in April, the events went off without missing a beat, delivering knockouts, submissions, a retirement bout, and champions Isao and Kikuiri announced that they are relinquishing their belts in order to go to Bellator, with Kikuiri set to compete at their upcoming Hawaii show.
Toru Ogawa also retired after a 1 round amateur rules bout versus his old mentor Kiyotaka Shimizu. Supporters and teammates were in attendance to see the former champion’s final bout in the cage.
Raika earns hard fought victory, Watanabe impresses in pro-debut
Having turned 48 earlier this year, Raika was 25 years older than Fumika when they faced off on Sunday. With a pro-boxing record of 25-8-1 and 4 titles, Raika has leaned primarily on her boxing skills as an MMA fighter. However, this was almost not enough against Fumika.
Despite this being her pro-debut and her only getting involved in MMA because she was no longer able to compete in Tennis because of the pandemic, Fumika was not intimidated by Raika’s boxing at all, electing to stand and trade with her for a majority of the fight.
Despite her repeatedly landing a lightning fast jab that gave Raika problems, Raika was able to land the harder shots and this is likely what caused 2 of the 3 judges to score the fight in her favor.
Matsui stays undefeated
Having recently signed with Iridium, a U.S. based management firm, like some of his teammates, Matsui clearly has high hopes for his MMA career and is likely looking to compete abroad. With that in mind, it seemed like he was trying to force the knockout throughout the fight, standing up and abandoning strong positions in order to land more hard shots on the feet. In the end it paid off for the young fighter, but it did show his lack of experience. That being said, he is still undefeated and looked very impressive in this performance.
Little battles back to earn hard fought draw
Early in the opening round, Uematsu was able to drop and badly hurt Little. On the ground he tried to lock on a choke but Little to his credit, weathered the storm and survived to see the 2nd round.
From the 2nd round on, Little turned the fight into a non-stop brawl, almost never taking his foot off the gas, despite taking hard shots from Uematsu. While he may have been on auto-pilot from the big shot he took, he showed that sometimes the best offense is a good defense, never giving Uematsu a second to get anything started.
While a draw isn’t the best outcome, Little battled his way back from absolute defeat and one judge ultimately ruled he was the winner. This shows the extent of his effort over the final 2 rounds.
Nakada chokes Miyake unconscious
With Isao announcing that he will be relinquishing his title in order to go to Bellator, Tokitaka, the interim champion, will likely be facing someone in the near future to crown a new champion. Nakada, who was ranked #1 in the division going into Sunday, showed that he deserves to be that person, choking his opponent unconscious. Since he locked on the choke near the end of the round, those in attendance thought that Miyake had survived when the bell rang ending the round, but when Nakada let go, it was revealed that Miyake was out.
Takagi adds another KO to his resume
Going into 332’s main event, Takagi had 3 finishes on his record, all from his right hand. Against the tough Endo, he added yet another. Throughout the fight, he took a measured approach, hurting Endo badly with a punch in the opening round. However, it was in the 2nd, when he threw a flying knee and followed it up with a right that he sent Endo to the canvas and the ref waved it off.
Pancrase 331 Results
- Hirotaka Nakada defeated Kisa Miyake via front choke @ 4:59 of RD 2
- Raika Emiko defeated Fumika Watanabe via SD (29-28×2; 28-29)
- Kohei Wakabayashi defeated Ryo Hatta via SD (29-28×2; 28-29)
- Shinsuke Nishio defeated Darani Pravajra via TKO @ 1:47 of RD 1
- Yohei Nada defeated Yoshito Itokawa via UD
- Mitsuhiro Taki defeated Cyber Ryo via UD
- Kohei Maeda defeated Kento Imai via SD (30-27, 29-28; 28-29)
Pancrase 332 Results
- Ryo Takagi defeated Raiki Endo via KO @4:29 of RD 2
- Kosei Takahashi defeated Hiroki Nagaoka via UD
- Toru Ogawa vs Kiyotaka Shimizu, DRAW
- Shinichi Taira defeated Yusuke Amari via UD
- Yoshiki Uematsu vs Takafumi Ato, MD (29-28; 28-29; 28-28)
- Toki Matsui defeated Ryota Sasaki via TKO @ 3:18 of RD 3
- Haruki Kawakita defeated Koji Kanda via UD
- Tomoki Otsuka defeated Kiyoshiro Akasaki via front choke @ 0:27 of RD 2
How to watch
- You can watch Pancrase by becoming a member of their Youtube page. If you are within Japan, you can also access English commentary.
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