TOKYO, Feb. 4 – At tonight’s Pancrase show, I didn’t see too many members of the fight media. Yeah, I can guess why. Because fight cards can offer vary in their level of excitement.
Anyhow, I work three minutes from Korakuen Hall, so I went to check out how the show turned with a card that I would hardly say looked very exciting. A few hours later, it turned out 6-1-1. Do you know what is that means? Six knockouts … one submission … one decision. This show became one of the most memorable PANCRASE shows I’ve ever seen.
Katsuya Inoue is a solid wrestler, and now he earned his striking skills too. When the fight began, Heath Sims, an American Olympic wrestler, threw several good leg kicks. But once Inoue figured out Sims’ attack rhythm he started force Sims back with pressure.
Then, while both of them exchanged punches, Inoue’s right hand connected and Sims dropped hip-first down to the mat. Inoue followed Sims to the ground and the American tried to take guard position. But pressure from Inoue was too strong. Eventually, Inoue knocked out Sims 4:40 of round one. After the fight, Inoue called out SHOOTO champion Akira Kikuchi from K’s Factory.
Kengo “The Movie Star” Watanabe is once again back in a Pancrase ring, facing Yuji Sakuragi. Rounds one and two were nearly same: Watanabe took Sakuragi down, and him on his back while pounding away with strikes the time. That means Sakuragi was smacked in the face off 10 minutes.
While Watanabe doesn’t have such a flashy fight record, he’s a pretty big dude. Two hundred twenty pounds dropping bombs from the top, now that’s a nightmare. I wonder what kept Sakuragi fighting. What pushed him as he entered round three?
I thought this fight was destined to go the distance and Sakuragi’s face would end up looking like a potato, but, hey, this is the why any kind of sports can make such a drama. Six seconds into round three, Sakuragi unleashed a sharp, lightening-fast left high kick that slapped Watanabe’s face, and turn off his “Function As A Fighter” switch. Watanabe went down. Sakuragi followed with a soccer kick to his head, and fight was over.
About 10 days ago, Mitsuyoshi Sato earned a win in an Indonesian MMA show. Sato is one of the most powerful fighters from GRABAKA Gym, while his opponent was Latvian karate fighter Kestutis Arbocius.
Everybody thought Sato would win this fight, but that didn’t happen, as he was knocked out with just one second left in the final period. During the fight, Sato tasted Kestutis’ big right hand many times, and Kestutis mounted Sato and pounded with strikes. Sato tried leg submissions several times from inside the guard, but Kestutis defended each.
When he missed the last leg submission, he got knocked out, and his soul flew out from ring as he was carried from the ring on a stretcher. Congratulations to this Latvian fighter.
Check out Izuru Takeuchi’s record on the Fight Finder. How many decision wins has he earned in the past? Then how many fights did he finish in the past? This fight tonight went exactly like you’d expect.
Takeuchi is a master of the clinch, and the master looked a bit better than his opponent, Yuji Hisamatsu.
He defended all of Hisamatsu’s attacks, and took dominant positions like back mount. But the fight itself is just so “yawn.” After the fight, he called out Nathan Marquardt for the title shot. Watch out Nate! He will kill your good part and make the fight look bad.
Pancrase-ism Dojo chief Takafumi Ito faced off against freelance fighter Masakazu Kuramochi. Ito had lost back-to-back fights, so he needed to win tonight’s fight.
The contest started as a long-range striking battle. Then Ito went for a shot, but during the wrestling battle, Kuramochi, who has a more powerful upper body, controlled the clinch, took down and dominated on the ground. Ito managed to stand back up, and his right hand connected to Kuramochi’s chin right on the button. The referee stopped the fight 3:30 of round one to add a win to his record.
Hikaru Sato threw a bunch of body shots, but once Sumio Koyano started striking back, Sato’s right hand connected. Koyano went down, but Sato showed no mercy and pounded from the mount position. Koyano’s corner was forced to throw in the towel.
Takumi “The Oriental Mystery” Yano submitted J-taro Takita 2:15 of round one via toe hold submission.
Daizo Ishige so heavily knocked out Shinpei Sotoyama 4:41 of round one that he had to be carried out of the ring on a stretcher. This guy, Daizo, is in the “zone” now. It seems like every punch he throws connects and damages his opponent. After the fight, he called out Koji Oishi (who he supposed to fight tonight) from Pancrase-ism, for his next bout.
Other News:
Yoshihiro Takahashi, who’ll be exchanging his knuckles with Igor Vovchanchyn in PRIDE 29, came out in the ring during intermission, to say he’s returning his heavyweight title to the Pancrase organization. He also mentioned that he’d be out of PANCRASE-ism and start making a new team with Kengo Watanabe, which will be fighting, based on Pancrase.