Rising star Fumika Watanabe wanted simply over two minutes to seize the Flyweight Queen of Pancrase title tonight in the primary occasion of Pancrase 352 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The 25-year-old Watanabe knocked out champion Shizuka Sugiyama, who was unsuccessful in her first defence.
Watanabe, who has racked up three straight wins since dropping a slim Cut up Resolution in her professional debut, claimed the belt with a nasty proper hook. Additionally on the cardboard, former Deep Jewels champ Miki Motono narrowly outpointed present Shooto titleholder Emi “Kamikaze Angel” Fujino at strawweight.
Watanabe (3-1-0) scored a knockdown early on after touchdown a proper hand to the face of Sugiyama (23-8-1), whose nostril turned pink. A proper cross landed for Watanabe and Sugiyama responded by clinching and pushing her all the way down to the bottom. Watanabe labored again to her toes and he or she completely countered a left hand from Sugiyama with a proper hook that badly damage the veteran and ended the combat. The official time of Watanabe’s knockout victory got here on the 2:15 mark of spherical one.
Regardless of her relative lack of expertise, Watanabe has defeated three straight prime contenders together with former champions Takayo Hashi and now Sugiyama. She had beforehand gone the space in every outing for Pancrase, however Watanabe left nothing as much as the judges along with her fast title win tonight.
Earlier on the cardboard, Motono (9-5-0) made a profitable Pancrase debut with a much-needed win over former Strawweight Queen of Pancrase Champion Fujino (30-16-1, 1 NC). Within the first spherical, Fujino had early success with clinch strikes after backing Motono up towards the cage wall. When Motono created area, she landed a jab and a leg kick earlier than taking pictures in for a takedown, however Fujino countered it with a guillotine choke and all three judges scored the spherical in her favour.
Motono evened issues up within the second spherical by hanging from a distance with leg kicks as Fujino responded with straight proper arms. Motono was not in a position to take Fujino down, however her clinch management was sufficient to earn her the spherical on all three scorecards. Motono scored with a physique kick within the last spherical and secured a takedown, however she needed to combat off two guillotine chokes from Fujino, who was energetic off of her again. The fighters stood up late within the spherical and exchanged jabs till the bell.
All three judges awarded the back-and-forth last spherical to Motono and returned scores of 29-28 in her favour for a Unanimous Resolution win. The essential victory was Motono’s first since November 2022 after back-to-back defeats to Xiaocan Feng together with one in a Street To UFC matchup in August.
