» Fighter: Takuya Wada

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 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.

Pancrase opens act three of it’s Shining tour at Differ Ariake 27 April starring venerable middleweight vets Yuki Kondo (48-20-6) and Keiichiro Yamamiya (32-22-9) in a rematch a dozen years on.

Kondo KO’d Keiichiro while I was scheduling 100-level firsts for my freshman year at uni’ way back in ‘96.

That “L” was Yamamiya’s first; but, in ‘08 the two warriors come with victories over “Hightower” Semmy Schilt (25-14-1), “Lights Out” Chris Lytle (25-15-5),  Frank Shamrock (24-8-1), Denis Kang (29-9-1), and Masakatsu Funaki (38-12-1) between them.

The entire lineup is below:

Yuki Kondo v Keiichiro Yamamiya
Shoji Maruyama (6-2) v Koji Oishi (16-7-4)
Bryan Rafiq (5-2) v Takuya Wada (16-8-8)
“The Pink Typhoon” Yuji Hisamatsu (10-14-4) v Matti Makela (9-5)
Manabu Inoue (6-3-1) v “J-Taro” Masaya Takita (8-9-2)
Daisuke Watanabe(17-27-4) v Ryuji Ohori (2-2)
Yukio Sakaguchi (1-2) v Wataru Takahashi (5-10-3)