On May 26th, Pancrase 305 boasts another fantastic card for the promotion sure to entertain the JMMA fans old and new alike. Sponsored by One Championship, fighters have been responding well to the extra cards on the table and career implications.
The main event: Nazareno “El Tigre” Malegarie vs. Isao “Never Quit” Kobayashi. This is going to be a fight that will unify the title for the Featherweight King of Pancrase. Malegarie was the original title holder but was unable to defend it due to a knee injury he suffered early in his fight against Issei Tamura back in March of 2017 at Pancrase 285. Since that time Malegarie has had fights in other organizations, but this will be his first time back in the Pancrase cage in nearly 2 years.
Isao, is currently on a two fight winning streak but has not touched cage canvas in over 12 months. His last fight was back in April of 2018 at Pancrase 295 where he faced the young killer Koyomi Matsushima, the fight ending in a DQ for Matsushima due to a knee to the head of a grounded Isao in round 1. This broke Isao’s orbital and kept him out of action for some months following surgery. The winner of this fight should go on to defend the Lightweight King of Pancrase title against Kyle Agon from Guam who has come into his own in recent months. Aguon has laid waste to almost every opponent that Pancrase has put in front of him since he came over to the promotion from PXC. Needless to say, there are some WARS brewing in the Pancrase Featherweight division.
If you are in Japan, this is absolutely a card you want to see live. If you are outside of Japan you can catch it and all other archived Pancrase events on UFC Fightpass.
