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) ...