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.   ...

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. ...