Pancrase Impressive Tour 1 - February 6th

The opening event of Pancrase's 2011 Impressive Tour will take place next Sunday, February 6th, at the Differ Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan. The event will be headlined by a bout between welterweight King of Pancrase Kengo Ura and Takenori Sato and will also feature Akihito Tanaka's return to mixed martial arts. Former middleweight King of Pancrase Yuki Kondo will also be on the card.

Kengo Ura became the welterweight King of Pancrase with a split decision victory over Grabaka journeyman Keiichiro Yamamiya last June at Passion Tour 5. Meanwhile, the Laughter7 product Sato is 2-3 in his last five fights, having defeated Shingo Suzuki and Yuta Nakamura while dropping bouts to Yuki Kondo, the aforementioned Keiichiro Yamamiya, and Joe Doerksen.

As mentioned, Akihito Tanaka will return to MMA on the night and will meet Yuhei Fukuda in a light heavyweight contest. As with a number of other bouts on this card, this one looks like a real showcase for Tanaka. Fukuda is 3-1 but recently lost against the sub .500 Yusuke Masuda. Before we move on to where you know Tanaka from, I would like to remind you that he won the All-Japan Freestyle Wrestling Championship seven years in a row. Tanaka's only prior MMA bout was at Dynamite!! 2008, as he put on a mask inspired by anime character Kinniku Mantaro, showed some real grappling skill, and was summarily drubbed by Bob Sapp. Wearing a mask in a mixed martial arts bout is a really silly idea and I have no idea where he got it from. I could never imagine a Japanese promotion allowing such absurdity. Seriously.

In the welterweight division, Yuki Kondo will face Hiroki Nagaoka in what some would likely deem a squash match. Kondo perhaps settling into the division and being a name that people know, it would seem the promotion may be giving a little push toward a bout putting him against fighters higher up the Pancrase welterweight ladder.

Impressive Tour 1 will also feature 9-2 bantamweight Seiya Kawahara, known Marlon Sandro victim Tomonari Kanomata, and a third bout between early Pancrase veterans Keiichiro Yamamiya and Kosei Kubota (their first two bouts coming in 1997 and 2000). The card, heavy on welterweight and bantamweight bouts, is after the jump.

Kengo Ura vs. Takenori Sato - welterweight King of Pancrase bout
Akihito Tanaka vs. Yuhei Fukuda - light heavyweight
Masahiro Toryu vs. Eiji Ishikawa - welterweight
Yuki Kondo vs. Hiroki Nagaoka - welterweight
Seiya Kawahara vs. Takumi Murata - bantamweight
Tomonari Kanomata vs. Tomoyuki Miyaji - featherweight
Keiichiro Yamamiya vs. Kosei Kubota - welterweight
Tashiro Nishiuchi vs. Shoko Sato - bantamweight
Masahiro Oishi vs. Masaya Takita - bantamweight
Akihito Tanaka vs. Yuhei Fukuda - light heavyweight
Takuya Eizumi vs. Yoshihiro Matsunaga - flyweight
Isao Hirose vs. Hayato Sato - flyweight
Junichi Ota vs. Kazuki Tokudome - lightweight