Shintaro Ishiwatari vs. Victor Henry Bantamweight Title Fight Added to Pancrase 273
Shintaro Ishiwatari will go in search of win No. 20 in December.
| Photo: Taro Irei/Sherdog.com
Reigning bantamweight King of Pancrase Shintaro Ishiwatari will return from a year-long injury layoff to defend his crown against top contender Victor Henry at Pancrase 273.
Pancrase on Tuesday announced the championship matchup, one of the first bouts added to a Dec. 13 card expected to stream live on UFC Fight Pass from Tokyo’s Differ Ariake arena.
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Henry, 28, has gone 2-0 in Pancrase and 4-0 overall in Japan, recording impressive finishes against the likes of Hideo Tokoro and Masakatsu Ueda. The Josh Barnett pupil earned his title shot earlier this month by taking out Hidekazu Fukushima with a first-round guillotine choke at Pancrase 270.
Also announced was a fight between undefeated youngster Kento Kanbe and once-beaten Yukitaka Musashi to decide the second and final champion of Pancrase’s soon-to-be-dissolved 120-pound weight class. Among the list of expected participants still without opponents are former two-division Shooto champ Mamoru Yamaguchi, kickboxing convert Yuki Niimura and onetime UFC fighter Issei Tamura.
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