Rei Tsuruya enhanced his reputation as one of the most exciting young talents in Japan when he submitted Satoru Enomoto to be crowned Flyweight King of Pancrase. The fight headlined the card at the Yokohama Budokan on December 25th.
The 20-year-old came into the fight with an unblemished 5-0 record and five straight stoppages. His last win came against Masatatsu Ueda at Pancrase 329 where he got the job done with ground and pound in the first to earn a shot at the title.
Enomoto won the belt with a unanimous decision win over Toru Ogawa at Pancrase 326. He came into the contest riding a seven fight winning steak.
Keisuke Takazawa
All apologies
The youngster sought to use his grappling from the get-go and shot in for a single leg in the Pancrase 330 headliner. Enomoto was able to find his feet but soon found himself shoved against the cage before being wrestled to the ground.
Tsuruya was able to take the back and go for the Suloev stretch. Unable to lock in the submission, the Deep veteran moved for the left arm but Enomoto escaped to his feet and pushed his opponent against the cage wall.
Tsuruya threw a left high kick early in the second stanza before securing a double leg and laying down some ground and pound, catching the 32-year-old with a clean left hand. The southpaw then moved in for the kill as he took Enomoto’s back and sunk in the rear naked choke.
With the win he improves to 6-0 while his opponent drops to 8-4. Afterwards Tsuruya apologized for being unable to finish the fight in the first round and declared he wanted to sin with the UFC.
Keisuke Takazawa
Best of the rest
Earlier in the afternoon Ryo Tajima was crowned interim bantamweight champion. Toshinori Tsunemura’s corner threw in the towel midway through the fourth round.
Tajima improves to 7-1 and makes it five wins on the bounce, he will be hoping to fight regular champion Rafael Silva who was last seen in action in 2019. Tsunemura slips to 18-11-4
Pancrase 330, Yokohoma, December 25th
Rei Tsuruya def. Satoro Enomoto via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 1:03 of R2
Tokitaka Nakanishi def. Jae Hyuk Bang via Decision (Split)
Tatsuya Saika def. Shyudi Yamauchi by TKO (Punches) at 4:49 of R1
Ryo Tajima def. Toshinori Tsunemura via TKO (Corner Stoppage) at 3:13 of R4
Haruka Hasegawa def. Karen via Decision (Unanimous)
Seiichiro Ito def. Masatoshi Ueda via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 1:26 of R1
Issei Tamura def. Ryo Asami via Decision (Unanimous)
Genpei Hayashi def. Kota Shirakawa via TKO (Punches) at 3:33 of R1
Akihiro Murayama def. Hiroki Nagaoka via Decision (Unanimous)
Suguru Nii def. Ryo Takagi via Submission (Kimura) at 1:14 of R1
Yusuke Kasuya def. Yuki Okano Technical Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 4:47 of R1
Rui Imura def. Kenta Sakuma via Decision (Unanimous)
Jenny Huang def. Sayako Fujita Submission (Face Crank) at 2:17 of R2
Takuya Kuramoto def. Yasutaka Kato via TKO (Punches) at 1:16 of R1
Ryo Yazawa def. Kaito Kimoto via TKO (Punches) at 0:15 of R1
Sodai Mitobe def. Omito Kanazawa via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 3:23 of R2
Reo Yamaguchi def. Arashi Okada via Decision (Unanimous)
