Pancrase 296 Review

Last Sunday we had the honor to be there live at Pancrase 296. It was held at the tremendous Studio Coast in Shin-Kiba. This is their new water front venue.

This was a historical MMA event. This event had the Interim Bantamweight King Of Pancrase. It was also announced that this would be the last MMA fight for Matsukasu Ueda. In Pancrase 296 the main event was set as Matsukasu Ueda Vs. Rafael Silva. But before we get to this fight lets high light some of the other fights on the card.

One of the most impressive fights was Kunio Nakamura Vs. Kenta Takagi. During this fight Nakamura pulls off one of the fastest KOs in Pancrase history. He KO’d Takagi in :07 seconds of round 1.  It was an amazing punch and you can check it out on UFC Fightpass if you did not see it live.

Another fight to check out on this card is Akihiro Murayama Vs Takaaki Nara. This one was also a quick finish as Murayama puts a vicious RNC on to Nara at about the 3 minute mark of round 1. This choke was so tight that at the finish, Nara was completely passed out and was going into seizures. He was transported out of the cage with a stretcher!

Finally as we discussed before the main event of Pancrase 296 was the last fight for Masakatsu Ueda. He was in the main event fighting against Rafael Silva out of Brazil. This was a fight that anyone that does Brazilian Jiu-jitsu would love. We say that meaning that it was a very technical in the grappling. Not an exciting fight for everyone we have to admit. In all 5 rounds Silva used a body triangle to control Ueda’s hips and just hold him from there and pepper in some (not a lot) of punches. That was it..

We have discussed this in other articles, but we don’t think holding wins an MMA fight. Plus given this was the last fight for an MMA legend, a holding match is the last thing we wanted to see as MMA fans. But in the end the safety way of just holding let Rafael Silva win the Interim KOP. Tell us what your thought are on Twitter. Tweet to @mmajpn1 and let us know.

Once the fight was finished and the new champion was crowned, another ceremony took place. The proud warrior, Masakatsu Ueda, once again entered the cage. During this ceremony he thanked all his sponsors and fans for their support. He said he would be going on to new frontiers in his career and he would always remember and respect the times he had in the cage. With that said, he bowed to all four corners and placed his gloves in the middle of the cage.