OSAKA, Japan, Sept. 30 -- Pancrase's Rising Tour brought a close Sunday to a weekend of MMA in Osaka, as fan-favorite
Daichi Fujiwara (Pictures) defeated late-replacement
Mitsuhisa Sunabe (Pictures) at Umeda Stella Hall.
The main event had changed after France's
Emmanuel Fernandez (Pictures) pulled out of the fight for personal reasons. Sunabe, who was fighting for the second time this month, stepped in on a week's notice, but he was obviously not in fighting condition.
Sunabe looked worried during the staredowns, probably with good cause. He resembled a mummy rather than a fighter -- his ribs and back were very heavily bandaged.
A showy, confident and strong Fujiwara caught him off balance early and took him down. Immediately Fujiwara transitioned to an anaconda choke, which had the referee watching closely.
Sunabe was slick enough to escape and return to his feet, where he looked overcautious. Promptly, Fujiwara took him down again, then outmuscled and pounded on Sunabe for the remainder of the round.
Perhaps predictably Sunabe's night ended soon after. Only seconds into round two, Fujiwara faked a shot and fed him a massive high kick.
Sunabe was out for some time. Despite the doctor's advice, he left on his own accord after a few minutes. An emotional Fujiwara was overjoyed with his dominating performance.
It was a good night for Fujiwara's camp, too. Teammate
Naoji Fujimoto (Pictures) was also victorious in front of a rowdy crowd against the eccentric
Nobuhiro Yamaguchi, who entered the ring in a towel before revealing a pair of shorts that featured a strawberry on the buttocks meant to resemble girls' underwear.
With both fighters unsuccessful in recent outings, the pair started a little slowly in the first round.
Fujimoto was constantly trying for the takedown, and Yamaguchi was trying his luck on the feet. Eventually Fujimoto won the battle and took his opponent down with a trip.
Instantly Fujimoto went for a rear-naked choke. However, Yamaguchi slipped his way out and scrambled into the mount and back mount before the round concluded.
In the second and final round, Fujimoto again pressed with takedown attempts and ate some nice jabs for his trouble. Ultimately, though, he succeeded again and moved the fight to Yamaguchi's guard.
Yamaguchi pressured from his guard by faking a sweep and applying a triangle that Fujimoto wanted no part of.
This pattern of Fujimoto getting the takedown and Yamaguchi getting to his feet continued until the closing seconds, when both fought a heel hook battle just as the bell sounded. All three judges gave Fujimoto the win. Afterward, he was emotional while telling a shocked crowd that the bout may have been his last.
Undefeated Shooto rookie tournament champ
Yu Shiori (Pictures) turned to the dark side (or perhaps light side, depending on whom you ask) and left Shooto to debut in Pancrase against journeyman
Satoru Takadaya.
The two didn't trouble the ring girls -- this one wasn't getting out of the first round. Takadaya came out aggressively and got the takedown. Instead of passing the guard, he went for an ill-fated heel hook. Shiori capitalized and quickly escaped and mounted.
From there he laid on the ground-and-pound thick and fast, forcing Takadaya to give his back for the choke with 20 seconds left in the round.
In other bouts
Masahiro Toryu (Pictures) won a hotly contested decision over Noriyuki Kitaura.
Kiichi "Strasser" Kunimoto stopped
Yuta Nakamura (Pictures) from the mount after connecting heavily with a diving punch while Kunimoto was playing guard.
Takashi Hasegawa and
Kenta Nakamura (Pictures) fought a lively majority draw, and
Asuka Ito (Pictures) survived multiple wardrobe malfunctions and
Kinuka Sasaki (Pictures)'s jiu-jitsu to take a majority decision in the sole female match of the evening.
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