Pancrase 279 Martial Arts Greatness

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Pancrase 279 was a fantastic event. Once again the promotion sold out the Differ Ariake venue.

Pancrase MMA never let’s us down. THe men and women that fight for this promotion are there to put on a good show. You can tell that they have been training and they are ready for war!

This time around there were some very noteworthy battles. Most outstanding battle of the evening and possibly one of the rarest finishes in MMA was during the 3rd fight on the card. where Guy Delumeau came back after an 8 month break due to injury to beat Satoshi Inaba in 1 Minute and 40 seconds of round 1 with a Twister!

I can imagine Eddie Bravo with a smile on his face.

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The next great fight was fight #5 on the card where you saw Kenta Takagi vs. Hiroyuki Tetsuka. THe first round was full of action! Tetsuka walks into the cage with all the strength and guts of a Samurai. He is definitely a fighter that you want to keep an eye on. His career is just starting but he really brings it!

In the first round both Takagi and Tetsuka trade shots back and forth. It was a very exciting back and forth battle between the two warriors. Round two starts off and they end up on the ground. Takagi catches Tetuka with some punches and cuts him above the eye. The doctor is called in and has a look at the wound. The doctor can not let the fight continue and it is called off with a TKO in the 2nd round by doctor stoppage and the win goes to Takagi.

The fight that a lot of people were anticipating was the fight between Syuri Kondo and Nicolle Angelica Caliari. This was Syuri’s second bout in Pancrase and Nicolle’s first. Syuri has a large following in Japan because in addition to MMA she has also done Pro Wrestling. He fans definitely carry over into MMA.

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The fight was scheduled for 3 rounds and went the distance. Syuri dominated all three rounds so it was quite easy to see that the judges would let her walk away with the decision.

The 10th fight on the card was to mark the return of Rin Nakai. Rin has had a stint in the UFC where she fought notable fighters like Meisha Tate. In that bout, Rin ended up taking Meisha’s back 2 times. Not an easy task. Rin still holds a Queen of Pancrase (QOP) belt in the Bantam weight division. She considers Pancrase to be the home turf and was glad to be back.

He opponent was Emiko “Fujin” Raika. Fujin is just starting out in MMA and has fought in other organisations. The fight was mostly Rin Nakai dominating Fujin for all three rounds. The Judges finally decided that Rin was the winner. I am looking forward to seeing Rin fight more challenging opponents. Perhaps someone like Cyborg!?

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Pancrase 279 also had another UFC veteran on the card as well. Yushin Okami was up against. Shingo Suzuki. Both men were coming into the cage off losses. They both had something to prove. This time it was Okami that walked out with the win after KOing Suzuki in 2 Minutes and 5 seconds of Round 1.

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Finally the last fight of the evening was the main event! It was Shintaro Ishiwatari vs. Jonathan Brookins.

Brookins was coming to Pancrase after competing on TUF. He was to fight Ishiwatari at 135 lbs but failed to make weight. He was almost 1 pound over. Ishiwatari was still fine to fight him as the main event. According to the rules, if a fighter fails to make weight the opponent can still opt to fight him. However, if the person that missed weight wins, the fight will be a N\C or no contest and it can not be considered a title defense. If the guy who makes weight wins it will be considered a win on his record, but not a title defense either.

This was a very technical fight for both fighters. Both showed good strength and conditioning, but in the end the fight was awarded to Ishiwatari.

About the Author

Jeremy Deschner
Black Belt in American Karate from the Texas Karate Institute. Now training in Brazilian Jiujitsu in Japan. Twitter: @mmajpn1 @jiujitsu_Jedi
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