TOKYO, Japan, April 27 -- Entering Tokyo's historic Korakuen Hall this evening, it would be easy for one to mistake tonight's Pancrase Rising Tour 4 for Japan's first bodogFIGHT event.

With the bodogFIGHT logo plastered all over the venue, from the ring posts to the merchandise tables to the fighters' gloves, it was more than clear that Pancrase wanted to convey: Pancrase and bodogFIGHT are partners in crime.

With bodogFIGHT representative Eric Nichol announcing bodogFIGHT's official sponsorship of the "next two Pancrase events in Japan," the silence was finally broken on the partnership between the forum of Hybrid Wrestlers and Bodog, confirming once and for all Pancrase's months of allusions to that end. Until tonight, bodogFIGHT and Pancrase appeared to have little more than an unspoken deal to trade fighters.

Of the latest fighters on loan, two made their way to Japan this evening in the shape of Brian Rafiq, who took on Pancrase cosplay "otaku," Hikaru Sato (Pictures), in the semifinal, and Danny Batten, fresh off of a three-fight signing with Pancrase -- the first of which would pit him against Pancrase featherweight star Yoshiro Maeda (Pictures) in the main event.

Having barely one week to prepare as a last minute replacement, Batten, the Cage Warriors featherweight champ, tasted bitter defeat, dropping to 11-5-3 against Maeda.

Far from his typical form as well, Maeda took the better of two rounds to get into the swing of things, only realizing after two periods that he had the Briton's number. Tentative and otherwise leaving the obligation of attacking up to Maeda, Batten showed little attempt to damage his opponent.

Teasing the crowd with the occasional resounding low kick or a hard, single punch every now and again, Batten's potential to unleash a succession of deadly strikes seemed just under the surface, but unfortunately never came to fruition.

Both men began the first round tentatively, measuring each other with hard low kicks and brief punching staccatos. After a hard Batten kick to the midsection, Maeda shot in for a takedown, slamming him to the floor as Batten fought for underhooks. From guard, Maeda ticked away the remaining minutes by peppering Batten with punches from top position.

Batten fared no better in the second period as he continued to backpedal, apparently waiting for his opening to counter Maeda. Outside of a few jabs and several front kicks however, Maeda proved non-compliant, and gave the Cage Warrior champ little to work with.

After being reset off of a Maeda takedown attempt that almost put both fighters out of the ring, the Japanese featherweight came to the conclusion that Batten's lack of offense proved him to be of little danger.

Deciding then to push the pace as the bout's aggressor, Maeda engaged Batten with a barrage of well-placed body punches and hooks, rocking the Briton. Though unable to dispatch him with the following flurries and knees, Maeda was able to take Batten down and dominantly pound him out for the duration of the round.

Regardless of Batten's ability to ride out the final frame till the very end, Maeda's dominant ground and pound throughout the length of the third did little to help his case. With the ref almost stopping the fight midway through due to a number of unanswered ground and pound punches, Maeda left no doubt in the mind of the judges that his one-sided shellacking of the Cage Warriors representative deserved the unanimous decision victory. In agreement, the judges scored the bout 30-28, 30-28, 30-27 in favor of Maeda.

Hikaru Sato (Pictures)'s exuberant and energetic entrance -- complete with frilly white dress and bubblegum-flavored rave music -- did little to endear him to bodogFIGHT representative Brian Rafiq this evening. Despite an early Sato takedown, Rafiq was able to easily reverse his opponent and take the back position.

Quickly scrambling out of trouble, Sato was able to roll and reverse the position to land himself in Rafiq's guard, but his lack of inactivity in seizing the opportunity of position forced the ref to break them up soon after. From here, and into the second round, Rafiq was able to take the top position in the grappling exchanges and pound away with his short, powerful arms.

Deflating like a flan in a cupboard, the cosplay fighter was battered beyond his ability to defend, forcing the referee to intervene and award Rafiq the TKO victory at 2:16 in the second.

In perhaps tonight's most uninspired performance, Izuru Takeuchi (Pictures) bounced back into the winner's circle by opting for the safe win, grinding out the unanimous decision victory against Pancrase vet Daisuke Watanabe (Pictures).

With most of the bout consisting of Takeuchi taking the top position in Watanabe's guard and hammering away for points, Watanabe apparently had no solution to turning the tables in his favor, rarely attempting to mount an offense or even attempting to improve his positioning.

Outside of a deeply sunk guillotine in the second round, Watanabe's offense was essential nil. A sloppy Watanabe gogoplata attempt in the third was met with yet more punishing ground-and-pound, complete with forearm strikes that opened up a cut on his right eye. Having doled out the majority of the punishment in the bout, Takeuchi was given the unanimous decision (30-28, 30-28, 30-27).

Despite the hype Yukio Sakaguchi -- son of former Olympic judoka and legendary pro-wrestler Seiji Sakaguchi -- brought into his long-awaited pro debut tonight, his opponent, one Hyung Suk Choi, apparently didn't buy into the Japanese media propaganda, as he easily dispatched Sakaguchi early in the first, dousing all hopes of Pancrase building Sakaguchi into their newest celebrity.

Despite his awkward striking style, Choi put the pressure on Sakaguchi throughout the round, forcing him to eat low kicks and stiff, unwieldy punches.

In an attempt to mitigate the damage, Sakaguchi closed the distance and throw knees from the clinch, however his plan backfired, as it was in the clinch that Korean had another surprise waiting for him.

Choi's ability to dish out superb dirty boxing in the form of uppercuts and forearms in the clinch quickly wore Sakaguchi down enough for a punch combination to get through and put him flat on his back. Choi followed his opponent to the floor, literally flying in with a punch to start up his ground-and-pound finish.

Luckily for Sakaguchi, however, the referee was there to stop the bout and prevent further damage at a mere 1:51 in the first, giving Choi the knockout victory.

In one of the evening's more entertaining bouts, Miki Shida (Pictures) and Manabu Inoue (Pictures) fought a non-stop tactical battle that almost ended in misfortune with an errant knee to the groin, late in the third period.

Both men entered the bout with differing game plans -- Shida looking to end the bout with blistering punch combinations, while Inoue pursued the tactic of chopping Shida down with push kicks and low kicks.

After two rounds of solid back-and-forth exchanges which saw Shida's barrages piling up the points and Inoue's kicks tattooing his opponent's legs red and purple, fatigue finally set in at the third, making both men less defensive and reckless in their pursuit of the attack.

Dropping his hand just long enough for a hard right hook from Shida, Inoue found himself dazed and against the ropes as he attempted to keep the Shida barrages at bay. Perhaps somewhat overzealous at the scent of blood, Shida accidentally landed a low blow knee, forcing a temporary stop for Inoue's recovery.

A game and somewhat agitated Inoue returned minutes later, dropping all pretenses of defense and firing wide high kicks and punching barrages, most of which Shida was able to slip. Taking the fight back to the canvas off of an overshot Inoue punch, Shida pounded out the remainder of the third from within Inoue's guard, capturing the round without a doubt for his own. All three judges scored the bout 30-28 in favor of Shida for the unanimous decision.

Perhaps further perpetuating the notion that "wherever you fight, bottom position is bad," Shinya Aoki (Pictures) contemporary and ADCC runner-up Sotaro Wada dropped his bout by unanimous decision to Takuya Wada (Pictures) after two rounds of laying underneath while searching for the submission.

Both rounds were essentially indistinguishable, as Yamada would charge forward in order to jump up on Wada to pull guard, whereupon he would throw on the now chic rubber-guard and search for submissions.

Wada's break came late in the second, when the referee stood both men up for lack of action. Apparently surprising both men, a winging hook from Wada put Yamada on his back, allowing him to dish out head-dribbling ground-and-pound until the bell, punctuating his win in the judges' minds, and allowing him to walk out with the 20-18, 20-19, 20-19 unanimous decision.

Rising lightweight star, Shoji, finished his opposition in dominating fashion this evening, stopping Kenji Takeshige with a multitude of punishing blows at a mere 2:28 in the first.

Overwhelming Takeshige in fits during the opening moments of the bout, Shoji was apparently hard pressed to put his opponent away, as many of Takeshige's counter punches were enough to show the K.I.B.A. rep that his opponent was still in the game.

It wasn't long though, until Shoji found his opening in a lightning fast lead hook, dropping Takeshige to the canvas. Looking to finish with a flying knee, Takeshige was narrowly able to escape by merit of being low enough for Shoji completely fly over him. Upon standing back up, Takeshige was quickly dispatched by another vicious Shoji flurry, followed by a flying Shoji stomp and ground-and-pound that sealed the Pancrase Inagukigumi rep's fate.

Taking to the microphone post-fight, Shoji made sure to call out SK Absolute Russia's lightweight monster Artur Oumakhano between thanking the fans and Pancrase for their continued support.

In other happenings this evening, Pancrase announced their endeavor to expand into South Korea with the newly minted Pancrase Korea brand.

With Shigeru Saeki's successes in exploring the rich, unpolished talents of Korea for DEEP and the now defunct PRIDE Bushido, it appears Pancrase is heading north as well to strike their own finds and further strengthen their roster by starting up a whole new promotion to be run independently by Pancrase Korea's own South Korean staff.