In a non-title affair, welterweight King of Pancrase Daizo Ishige (Pictures) faced off against PANCRASEism’s Kenji Arai (Pictures). This was Ishige’s first match since taking the Pancrase title from Katsuya Inoue (Pictures) last August. Arai, coming off loses to both Jens Pulver (Pictures) and Robert Emerson (Pictures), was no doubt looking to get back on track with a win.
Arai was quite good at getting back to his feet after the takedowns and despite getting caught in a Thai clinch several times, managed to escape quickly before taking any serious damage.
On the last takedown before the end of the match, Ishige scored the mount. Arai twisted to escape, only to have his opponent take his back. Ishige threw punches from this position until the final bell. The fight went to the judges and Ishige walked away with the unanimous victory.
Relative newcomer Eriya Matsuda (Pictures) managed to hold his own against Pancrase veteran Takefumi Ito. Matsuda spent most of his time on his back after falling victim to Ito’s lightning quick takedowns, but showed that he had a strong guard and applied a good armbar attempt from the bottom in the second that Ito had to think fast to escape from.
For his part, Ito looked for an Achilles lock several times and inflicted damage from the top. The fight went the two round limit and Ito picked up the majority decision.
PANCRASEism’s Hikaru Sato (Pictures) was all over SK Absolute Russia’s Sviatoslav Matanov during their bout. The exciting Japanese fighter got a huge slam off a double-leg takedown attempt early on. For the rest of the match he maintained strong ground control and repeatedly kept going for kneebars and ankle locks against the sambo stylist.
The second round saw Sato get the takedown and pass guard, eventually scoring the mount. From here he sat up and began to rain down punches. Matanov twisted to escape, giving up his back. But despite escaping to the guard, he really couldn’t get anything going from the top and never had Sato in any danger. The fight went the distance and Sato took a unanimous decision.
The bout between Koji Oishi (Pictures) and Hiroyuki Nozawa (Pictures) turned out to be a real slugfest. Both guys really went at each other with the leather, often ending up in a clinch until the referee would break them apart and restart action.
The deciding exchange came in the final seconds of the first round. Both guys were in the corner and began to trade wildly, but it was Oishi who hit paydirt first, connecting with Nozawa’s chin and sending him to the canvas.
The Japanese fighter followed his opponent to the mat and continued with ground punches until referee Wada literally had to tear him off his opponent at the 4:53 mark of the first.
Windy Tomomi and Kanako Takeshita put on one of the best women’s bouts I’ve ever witnessed. This was a classic puncher versus striker battle. Tomimi really connected with some hard punches as Takeshita kept trying to tie her up, but once in the clinch Takeshita scored takedowns and often went for submissions.
This scenario continued throughout the fight, until in the third when Takeshita scored the mount. From here she applied a triangle from the top, eventually transitioning to an armbar as Tomomi fought to escape. With the technique fully on, the talented kickboxer couldn’t escape and he was forced to tap at 2:08 of the third.
Toryu Masahiro made quick work of Nobuhiro Tsurumaki in his first pro bout. The PANCRASEism prospect came charging forward with punching combinations, eventually catching his opponent and sending him down for good at 1:16 of round one.