TOKYO, May 2 — On a cold and rainy night, just before the start of the “Golden Week” national holidays here in Japan, Pancrase held Blow Tour 4 at this reporter’s home away from home, the legendary Korakuen Hall.
Two major themes headlined this event: first, the A Bracket finals in the continuing King of Pancrase heavyweight tournament, and second, the battle to determine the number-one contender to challenge for the welterweight King of Pancrase title.
Let’s take a look at the heavies.
Hawaiian native Poai Suganuma (Pictures) has been on quite a roll since coming to Pancrase just a mere seven months ago. Despite having only three fights behind him, he has yet to taste defeat and laid down some definitive performances against both Hideki Tadeo and Ryuta Noji (Pictures).
His opponent for the finals in the A Bracket was Yuji Sakuragi (Pictures), who while also being a relative newcomer to Pancrase, was coming off laying a brutal victory on Pancrase veteran Hikaru Sato (Pictures).
I’m going to paraphrase Sherdog.com’s fearless founder and leader, Jeff Sherwood, on his take of the Nogueira-Tamura fight to sum up this bout: “It looked like a little kid rolling with his father.” In this case, the little kid was Sakuragi.
Now I that the Fight Finder actually lists Sakuragi as being the heavier man, but let me tell you, he sure didn’t look it. Suganuma looked huge compared to his Japanese opponent, and I’m talking everything — chest, arms, back and legs. He was also much taller as well.
Sakuragi circled around the ring to start the match, and actually landed some pretty speedy low kicks on the Hawaiian, but once on the ground, things went all downhill for the Japanese fighter.
Suganuma scored the mount and then took his opponent’s back as Sakuragi twisted to escape. The Japanese fighter worked to fight off the choke, attempting to twist into Suganuma’s guard, but the American stuck to Sakuragi’s back like glue.
Eventually Suganuma returned to the mount and started to rain down punches. Sakuragi once again tried to twist to avoid the barrage, but there was no escape. Eventually the ref had seen enough and thankfully called an end to this beating with only a few seconds left in the first round.
Suganuma now awaits the winner of the Kestutis Arbocius (Pictures)-Ryuta Noji (Pictures) match in the finals of the B Bracket to be held June 6 at Korakuen Hall. He will face the winner of that match on August 27 at the Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, with the victor taking the heavyweight King of Pancrase title.
Personally, I like Suganuma’s chances in this tournament. He has already beaten Noji decisively, and Arbocius, while being a heavy hitter on his feet, doesn’t have the strength or skill to hang with him on the ground.
So now, with this his fourth victory, the Hawaiian born fighter has the unprecedented chance to rise to the top of the Pancrase heavyweight division after only five fights.
Now to the battle for the welterweight King of Pancrase number-one contender spot.
PANCRASEism fighter Satoru Kitaoka (Pictures) challenged the interim welterweight King of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue (Pictures) back in January to determine a true champion, but with match ending in a draw, a “true” champion could not be determined.
SK Absolute fighter Daizo Ishige (Pictures) defeated Kitaoka’s stable-mate, Koji Oishi (Pictures), by decision at that same event. That and his previous victory over Shunsuke Shoji pushed him up the ladder to challenge Kitaoka for the number-one contender’s spot.
This was an excellent fight with lots of action throughout. Ishige had a significant reach advantage on the somewhat short and stalky Kitaoka, and used it to his advantage to tag his opponent cleanly with some good combinations.
Ishige also worked his sprawl quite effectively throughout the match. Kitaoka came at him with some lightning fast shots, and for the most part he was able to get his legs out of the way, being put to his back only once in the in third round of the fight.
Kitaoka fell to his back several times after failed takedown attempts. While on his back he couldn’t capitalize on anything and often tied up his opponent’s arms to stop the strikes.
The last 30 seconds of the fight were the most exciting, with both fighters on their feet, throwing punches for a strong finish. The fight went to the final bell and the judges awarded Ishige the unanimous victory.
With this victory, Ishige will challenge Inoue somewhere in the near future to crown a “true” welterweight King of Pancrase.
Team No Limits fighter Robert Emerson (Pictures) had his trainer, Colin Oyama, in his corner for his bout against Pancrase veteran Takafumi Ito (Pictures). Like his teammate Yuki Kondo (Pictures), Ito has Pancrase in his blood. At 33, this was his 62nd fight, with all but two of those fights occurring inside a Pancrase ring.
Ito had some pretty good stand-up in this one, often tagging his opponent’s left thigh with stinging leg kicks. His shot was quite impressive as well —as fast at the end as it was at the start.
The thing that Emerson did really well in this fight was counterpunch; he often caught Ito with a right hand as the Japanese fighter came in with a combination. Several times the American’s counter sent Ito to the mat. Emerson was also quite effective in the clinch, twisting Ito to the ground after the Japanese fighter’s failed shot attempts.
On his back Ito went for Kimuras several times and even had a nice leg submission attempt, but in the end it wasn’t enough to convince the judges. The fight went the distance and Emerson took the unanimous victory.
In his fight against Azad Asgarov (Pictures), SK Absolute fighter Izuru Takeuchi (Pictures) showed some pretty decent boxing strategy by moving his head, picking his shots and backing his opponent into the corners. Asagarov chose the headhunting approach, throwing big, wild haymakers whenever his opponent got within range.
This fight only went to the ground once in the first, where Takeuchi scored the mount, then transitioned to a solid armbar attempt as Asgarov bridged to escape.
At the end of two rounds, Takeuchi took the unanimous decision.