Pancrase has released a number of the bouts set to be held at the Impressive Tour 2 event in Osaka, Japan on March 13th. The card will include bouts featuring Smackgirl champion Hitomi Akano and rising bantamweight Motonobu Tezuka. The card will be heavy on competitors who last saw action at the final event of the 2010 Passion Tour in December.

Hitomi Akano last appeared in the 135lb. female tournament held by Strikeforce last August, where she submitted Carina Damm before dropping a unanimous decision to Miesha Tate in the finals. At Impressive Tour 2, Akano will make her return to Japan in a bout against the 1-3 Chisa Yonezawa. To her credit, two of Yonezawa's losses were to Roxanne Modafferi and Takayo Hashi. Be that as it may, this bout is meant to do little more than showcase the submission prowess of Akano.

Motonobu Tezuka has had a pretty good run since winning the featherweight DEEP Future King Tournament in 2009. Following his victory, Tezuka dropped to bantamweight and made the move to Pancrase. He was a mainstay on the 2010 Passion Tour, with his most last victory coming over Takumi Murata in December. Tezuka may be encountering a slightly higher level of competition when he faces the 8-2-2 Hiroshi Tomita. At Passion Tour 12, Tomita knocked out Nobuhiro Yamauchi, one of Motonobu Tezuka's fellow members at the Cobra Kai MMA Dojo. Like Tezuka, Tomita made the drop from featherweight earlier in his career. It will be interesting to see what Tomita might have to offer for the decision-heavy Tezuka.

Also on the card, Pancrase middleweight veteran Yuta Nakamura will appear in a bout against Ikkei Nagamura. Nakamura last appeared in a submission loss to new welterweight King of Pancrase Takenori Sato. Ikkei Nagamura, who trains with Yoshihiro Akiyama at Team Cloud, had mixed results in the Cage Force promotion before dropping a bout to South Korean Ye Won Nam at Sengoku Raiden Championship 13 last June.

Impressive Tour 2 will host a lightweight bout between Shooto veteran Hisaki Hiraishi and the lanky but hopelessly over-matched Yoshifumi Dogaki, as well as what I believe will be the bantamweight premiere of Yudai Aoyama - who lost to Motonobu Tezuka in the semifinals of the DEEP Future King Tournament - as he faces off against Sho Nonaka.

Meanwhile, the 4-1 Daichi Kitakata will meet Brave gym member and former bantamweight Yuki Uejima in the flyweight division, while a second female bout of the night will see Smackgirl and Valkyrie veterans Fukuko Hamada and Mamiko Mizoguchi meet at the 106lb. weight limit.

The results from Pancrase's Impressive Tour 1 event are in from Tokyo and there is a new welterweight King of Pancrase. Takenori Sato was able to apply a kimura to Kengo Ura and secure the win near the end of the first round. I'm waiting on video of the bout, but the fact that Pancrase's blog indicates that the referee actually stopped the bout leads me to believe that Ura may have come away a little worse for the wear. I believe that makes Sato the sixth welterweight King of Pancrase, and while the division may not turn many heads, it remains a good win for the Laughter7 fighter.

Eiji Ishikawa did something intelligent in the co-main event of the evening: he denied Masahiro Toryu the chance to blast him in a striking exchange and was able to win by virtue of his wrestling acumen.

Let me say that I ended up being quite wrong about Yuki Kondo at welterweight. Or well, I was correct - in my observation that his opponent, Hiroki Nagaoka was a sub-.500 fighter. I was just wrong about Kondo being able to handle him and moving on to other things within the division. Kondo dropped a unanimous decision to Nagaoka, and, while he survived the bout, Dan Herbertson snapped this photo showing Kondo being carted off to the hospital.

Also on the card, Akihito Tanaka and Tomonari Kanomata were able to secure two-round decision victories over their opponents. I anticipated wins for both men and hope that in the case of Kanomata, we'll see him in there against a higher level of competition next time. As for Tanaka, I hope we'll have the chance to see him progress given the unfortunate beginnings of his career.

Seiya Kawahara returned from injury to score a second round knockout over Takumi Murata. Kawahara will need to continue his climb back up the ladder so to speak, but in a time where a lot of people aren't too confident in the Japanese prospects, we have to hope he can find success in his return.

I hope Keiichiro Yamamiya and Kosei Kubota can leave this as a trilogy. Their first two fights happening in 1997 and 2000 - both decision wins for Yamamiya - the two fought to a draw on Sunday.

Full results after the jump.

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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.

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On Thursday in Tokyo, Pancrase ran their Passion Tour 4 show from the Differ Ariake Arena.

In the main event, Yuki Kondo (52-23-7) defeated Ichiro Kanai (11-11-3) in a match to decide the Middleweight King Of Pancrase. Kondo won the 3 round battle by unanimous decision. He is now undefeated in his last 4 fights since returning to Pancrase after a loss in Sengoku in 2008.  

Former Flyweight King Of Pancrase Mitsuhisa Sunabe (11-6-3) defeated Hayato Sato (2-5-1) by 1st round KO in the semi-main. In other action, Grabaka camp fighter Shigeyuki Uchiyama (9-1) picked up his 9th win in 10 outings as he beat Wataru Takahashi (10-12-4) by decision. Former PRIDE and UFC veteran Daiju Takase (9-13-2) made his return to Pancrase with his match against Hoon Kim (7-6-1) ending a draw.

Pancrase returns with a show on June 5th where Kengo Ura (8-5-1) will face KEI Yamamiya (37-25-9) for the vacant Welterweight King of Pancrase. Former Welterweight K.O.P. Takuya Wada was recently stripped of his title for not accepting the fight against Kengo Ura.

There is also a show planned for July 4th that will see two title on the line as Manabu Inoue (9-5-1) defends his Bantamweight King of Pancrase crown against Seiya Kawahara (9-2). This will be a re-match as Inoue handed Kawahara one of his only 2 losses back in December of 2008. Also on the card will be Flyweight King of Pancrase Kiyotaka Shimizu (5-3-1) who will defend his title against Isao Hirose (8-1). 

Full Passion tour 4 results here.

Pancrase continued with their Passion Tour on Sunday as a sellout crowd of 1,892 turned out to the Differ Ariake to catch the show.

In the main event to determine the #1 contender for the King of Pancrase Lightweight title, Koji Oishi (20-8-6) defeated Isao Kobayashi (6-1) by unanimous decision after 3 rounds. It was Kobayashi's first career loss in a close match that was scored: 30-30, 30-29 and 30-29. Koji Oishi is now set off to face Lightweight champion Maximo Blanco for the title.

U.W.F. Snake Pit's Manabu Inoue (9-5-1) was victorious over Tatsuya So (5-4-1) in another good fight and Grabaka vet KEI Yamamiya (37-25-9) beat Takenori Sato (9-8-5) in a close bout that also went to decision. 

Full Results can be seen after the jump.

Pancrase returns to the Differ Ariake on Thursday April 29th continuing the Passion Tour.

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This Sunday April 4th Pancrase will hold the Passion Tour 3 show from the Differ Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Headlining the show will a match to determine the challenger for the King of Pancrase Lightweight title, Koji Oishi (19-8-6) will meet the undefeated Isao Kobayashi (6-0).

Oishi drew against current KOP Lightweight champion Maximo Blanco last April and since then won a decision over Hyung Kwang Kim. He's been a mainstay in Pancrase for years but has also appeared in the UFC, Bodog Fight and DEEP. Kobayashi, who fights out of Sakaguchi Dojo had an excellent 2009 winning all four of his fights. In February of this year, he defeated Hiroki Aoki in a re-match ending the fight with a TKO early in the 1st round. The winner of this match will secure a shot at Maximo Blanco at a future date.

In the semi-main, U.W.F. Snake Pit's Manabu Inoue (8-5-1) will take on Tatsuya So (5-3-1) in a three round Bantamweight tilt. Both fighters are riding a two fight winning steak into the match.

From Kazushi Sakuraba's Laughter7 gym, Takenori Sato (9-7-5) will meet Grabaka veteran KEI Yamamiya (36-25-9) in a battle between Welterweights.

The annual Neo-Blood tournament also kicks off in four different weight classes. Fight card listed after the jump. 

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Along with DREAM and Shooto, Pancrase also held a show this past Monday in Osaka. The main event saw the re-match between Tomoyoshi Iwamiya (6-10-1) and Kiichi Kunimoto (8-3-1). These two last met at a Pancrase event in October 2008 with Iwamiya coming out on top via decision. This go-round the match ended in a draw, with all 3 judges scoring the fight 29-29. A decent turnaround for Iwamiya who came into this fight on a three fight losing skid. Kunimoto is now undefeated in his past four appearances.

In the semi-main, Yu Shiori (9-2) knocked out Masahiro Toryu (7-5-4) in just 29 seconds. With the impressive win, Shiori could be looking at a title fight against Welterweight King of Pancrase Takuya Wada. I'd also like to see Shiori in a re-match against Kiichi Kunimoto, this would be another good match-up.

DEEP - Future Kings Tournament 2009 (Featherweight) winner Motonobu Tezuka (12-3-3) continues to shine after defeating Nobuhiro Yoshitake (3-7-2) by decision. Tezuka is now unbeaten in his last eights fights. The 22-year old Cobra Kai Dojo fighter is becoming a force among Featherweights.

Pancrase returns to the Differ Ariake Arena on April 4th for Passion Tour 3.

Full results for Passion Tour 2 after the jump.

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This Monday is a big day for Japanese MMA as DREAM debut's their first show of 2010, Shooto holds an event at Korakuen Hall and Pancrase run's the Pancrase - Passion Tour 2 from Azelea Taisho Hall in Osaka. It will the Pancrase organizations third show of 2010.

The main event will see a Welterweight re-match between Takada Dojo's Tomoyoshi Iwamiya (6-10) and Kiichi Kunimoto (8-3). It was back in October 2008 at Pancrase - Shining 8 when Iwamiya beat Kunimoto by decision. Tomoyoshi Iwamiya struggled last year loosing in all three of his outings. But, looking back to 2008 he was an impressive 4-1. Kunimoto went through 2009 undefeated and is riding a three fight winning streak coming into this match. Interestingly enough, his last loss came at the hands of Tomoyoshi Iwamiya.

In the semi-main, PANCRASEism Welterweight Masahiro Toryu (7-4-4) will meet Yu Shiori (8-2). Masahiro Toryu has only lost once in seven outings, with notable wins over Kosei Kubota and Tomoyoshi Iwamiya. Yu Shiori will be a strong challenger and he's unbeaten in his last three fights and was 2-0 last year.

Another interesting match will see the winner of the DEEP - Future Kings Tournament 2009 Motonobu Tezuka (11-3-3) face Nobuhiro Yoshitake (3-6-2). Tezuka was put together a four fight winning streak and is unbeaten in his last 7 fights.

You can checkout the full card after the jump.

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