Katsuya Inoue (16-5-2) defeated Koji Oishi (16-8-6) becoming the lightweight King of Pancrase during the main event at Pancrase: Shining 10 in Tokyo 7 December. Inoue won via unanimous decision in a fight that began slowly but was eventually edged on points by Inoue's ability to stuff takedowns and land respectable knees to his opponent.  In other action for the night, some old battles were waged again. Following a draw earlier in October at Pancrase: Shining 9, Takuya Wada (18-8-8) eventually earned a tight decision victory over Masahiro Toryu (6-3-2) in a methodical battle.  Manabu Inoue (7-5-1) shocked Seiya Kawahara (4-1) via submission with a rear naked choke during the second round becoming the first bantamweight King of Pancrase. The loss ended Kawahara's unbeaten streak.  Tomoyoshi Iwamiya (4-7) defeated Hiroyuki Nozawa (4-4-2) via unanimous decision during the Pancrase welterweight tournament final.  In non-title fights, Ichiro Kanai (8-9-2) defeated Pride veteran Daijiro Matsui (10-18-4) via submission in the first round. Stanislav Nedkov (4-0) moved forward undefeated with a TKO victory over Masayuki Kono (3-5). Hirotoshi Saito (3-0-1) and “Akai” Tashiro Nishiuchi (6-5-6) battled to a draw. Daisuke Hanazawa (11-9-3) defeated Maximo Blanco (1-1) via arm triangle submission in the second round. Isao Hirose (4-0) took the win over Tokuaki Ninomiya (1-1-1) with a majority decision by the judges.   ...

Sunday at DREAM.3 in Tokyo, Eddie Alvarez (14-1), "Crusher" Tatsuya Kawajiri (22-4-2), and "Uno Shoten" Caol Uno (25-10-4) advanced to the DREAM.5 semi-finals of the Lightweight Grand Prix. Fighters.com's tenth-ranked middleweight "Mayhem" Jason Miller (21-5) and Nick Diaz (16-7) also picked up wins. "Mayhem" easily pounded out Masakatsu Funaki-trained Katsuyori Shibata (2-4) in 6:57 to add himself and a bit of respectability to the Middleweight Grand Prix to be continued at DREAM.4. In the Lightweight GP's biggest upset, Uno was too slick for Fighters.com's fifth-ranked lightweight "Endless Fighter" Mitsuhiro Ishida (16-4-1) on his feet, then, surprisingly, on the mat. "Uno Shoten" wrapped Ishida up in a rear naked choke during a scramble on the ground, ending the "Endless Fighter" at 1:39 of the second round. Alvarez won an exciting unanimous decision over "Hellboy" Joachim Hansen in an upset predicted by Fighters.com. Kawajiri advanced to DREAM.5 in the expected "W" over "Buscape" Luiz Firmino (12-4), but wasn't able to stop the tough Brazilian. Some fighters get rusty after a prolonged absence.  "Mean for no reason" (as labeled by "Punk" Josh Thomson (14-2)) Diaz was pissed after six months of inactivity.  He unloaded on welterweight King of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue (16-6-3) for nearly seven minutes, causing Inoue's corner to throw in the towel. Diaz earned a DREAM welterweight title shot with the dominating "W". Welterweight Daisuke Nakamura (14-9) served Korean judoka Bu Kyung Jung (0-3) his first stoppage loss with a knockout at 1:05 of round two. "Marvelous" Melvin Manhoef (21-4-1) TKO'd another Korean judoka, Dae Won Kim (4-4), at 4:08 of round one. Lightweight Takeshi Yamazaki (14-7-2) won a unanimous decision over Shoji Maruyama (6-3-1). ...

Fighters.com tenth-ranked welterweight "Mayhem" Jason Miller (20-5) and 160-pound Nick Diaz (15-7) are scheduled for fights at DREAM.3 11 May. Miller is matched versus puroresu fighter Katsuyori Shibata (2-3). Shibata has dropped three straight since TKOing Yoshihisa Yamamoto (13-23) in March 2007. Miller comes off a December unanimous decision "W" over Tim Kennedy (9-2) from The Pit. Diaz is matched against Japan's interim welterweight King of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue (16-5-3) who comes off a generous majority draw over Djamal Kurbanov (3-0-1) at Pancrase last weekend. The fight will be Diaz's return from a cuts stoppage loss to "K.J." Karl James Noons (6-2) last November in an EliteXC 160-pound title fight. DREAM.3 features the second round of their Lightweight Grand Prix. ...

Sunday night, Differ Ariake in Tokyo hosted the latest installment of Pancrase. Light heavyweight Grabaka striker Keiichiro Yamamiya (33-22-9) scored a second consecutive upset, this time going long with veteran Yuki Kondo (48-21-6).   The judges called a majority decision in Yamamiya's favor by scores of 30-29 twice and 30-30. In December, Yamamiya won an upset unanimous decision over Ryo Kawamura (8-2-2). Pancrase crowned a new King at welterweight when Takuya Wada (17-8-8) won a unanimous decision over Jason Palacios (5-4).  Palacios was a late replacement for Frenchman Bryan Rafiq (5-2). Lightweight King of Pancrase Shoji Maruyama (6-2-1) weathered a mat struggle with Koji Oishi (16-7-5) to retain his title by majority draw.  Judges scores were 30-29 for Oishi, 29-29, and 30-30. "The Pink Typhoon" Yuji Hisamatsu (11-14-4) blew over Swede Matti Makela (9-6) by TKO at 4:52 of the first round. "J-Taro" Masaya Takita (9-9-2) evened up his record with a second-round KO of Manabu Inoue (6-4-1) at 1:16.  "J-Taro" clocked Inoue clean with a knee strike as Inoue shot. Middleweight warrior Ryuji Ohori (3-2) battled back from a pounding to submit Daisuke Watanabe (17-28-4) in an armbar at 4:46 of the second round.  It was Watanabe's third consecutive defeat. Team Sakuraba's Wataru Takahashi submitted Yuko Sakaguchi in an armbar at 4:23 of round one. Undefeated Djamal Kurbanov (3-0-1) and Katsuya Inoue (16-5-3) fought to a majority draw by scores of 30-29 for Inoue, 29-29, and 28-28. Lightweight Steve Magdaleno (4-0-1) won a unanimous decision over Korean Il Gyu Park (1-1). Featherweight Hirotoshi Saito (1-0) won a unanimous decision debut over Hayatao Shimizu. Bantamweight Yasutomo Tanaka (5-1-3) submitted Motonobu Tezuka (6-3-1) by rear naked choke at 2:30 of round two. In his pro debut, Takuya Eizumi (1-0) TKO'd featherweight Ryota Sasaki (0-2) at :43 of round two. ...

Interim welterweight King of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue successfully defended his title versus Satoru Kitaoka Wednesday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. The fight was scored 29-29 by all three judges; but, under the championship rule of “must decision”, the judges were instructed to choose a victor. Two chose Inoue and one chose Kitaoka, giving Inoue a split decision victory. The meeting was the third between the two Japanese fighters. Inoue won a unanimous decision in 2004 and the two fought to a draw in 2006. Inoue improves to 16-5-2, 10-2-1 in Pancrase. He holds a decision victory over Kyle Noke, who fights Scott Smith on ExliteXC's February 16 card in Miami. Kitaoka falls to 19-8-9, with victories over ProElite's Paul Daley, WEC's Carlos Condit, and UFC's Kurt Pellegrino. The first lightweight King of Pancrase was also decided on Pancrase's first iteration of their 2008 "Shining" tour. Japan's Shoji knocked out Russia's Artur Oumakhanov with a high kick 21 seconds into the second round. Shoji improves to 6-2, five wins by knockout, and picks up some brass. Oumakhanov falls to 7-2, 2-1 in Pancrase. Shining 1 is the first show since Pancrase adopted new weight classifications based on the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. On the undercard, Russian middleweight Alavutdin Gadzhiyev knocked out "The Pink Typhoon" Yuji Hisamatsu in 41 seconds to improve to 6-1, four wins by knockout, and 4-0 in Pancrase. In 155-pound matchups, Shinsuke Shoji versus Yuichi Ikari and Wataru Takahashi versus Daisuke Hanazawa both ended as draws. Japanese welterweight Sotaro Yamada caught countrymen Kiichi "Strasser" Kunimoto in a rear naked choke at 1:42 of the first round to improve to 5-3, all in Pancrase. Undefeated bantamweight phenom Seiya Kawahara debuted in Pancrase by knocking out veteran Pancrase punching bag Yuki Yamasawa in 28 seconds with a high kick, improving to 4-0. Pancrase’s second “Shooting” event occurs in March. No location or fight card has been announced. ...