The last minute cancellation of Pancrase 317 has led to a reshuffle. Several fights that were originally booked for last week will now be taking place on September 27th instead.
Among them is the title eliminator between Yoshinori Horie (9-2) and Taichi Nakajima (14-11-1) which looks set to serve as the Pancrase 318 co-main event. The winner will be handed a shot at featherweight King of Pancrase Isao Kobayashi.
Also moved to the Pancrase 318 card is the strawweight bout between Teppei Maeyama (5-7) and Tatsuki OzakiĀ (8-6). Both men are coming off wins and had originally been scheduled to fight last week.
As previously announced Genpei Hayashi faces Tatsuya Saika in an interim lightweight title bout at Pancrase 318. The winner is likely to face Takasuke Kume for the vacant title further down the line.
After the Pancrase 317 cancellation the promotion has made changes to the fight week schedule. The fighters will now weigh in on the same day as the show and will all be allowed to move up a division.
That means Hayashi and Saika will both be expected to tip the scales at 170lbs or less on fight day. The change is intended to reduce the contact time between the fighters, after someone on the Pancrase 317 event tested positive for Covid-19.
Pancrase 318, Tokyo, September 27th
Genpei Hayashi vs. Tatsuya Saika (For Interim lightweight title)
Yoshinori Horie vs. Taichi Nakajima (Featherweight)
Masayuki Kikuiri vs. Kenta Takagi (Welterweight)
Teppei Maeyama vs. Tatsuki Ozaki (Strawweight)
Kazuki Kasai vs. Doteki Ogawa (Lightweight)
Shinmare Komori vs. Yusaku Hayashi (Featherweight)
Takafumi Ato vs. Atsuhito Nagai (Strawweight)
Yura Naito vs. Yusei Muramoto (Middleweight)
Makoto Kawawa vs. Taiga Iwasaki (Middleweight)
Toshiomi Kazama vs. Atsushi Ueda (Featherweight)
Nobuhisa Kudo vs. Osamu Miyakawa (Bantamweight)
Haruki Kawakita vs Soba Hashigami (Flyweight)
Yuji Arai vs. Yudai Hirono (Middleweight)
Hirotaka Nakada vs. Yu Karino (Lightweight)
Tatsuhiko Iwamoto vs. Tatsuya Saito (Featherweight)
Mutsuki Miyajima vs. Shuhei Noyama (Bantamweight)
Dokuichiro Baisen vs. Aito Tanimura (Flyweight)
Taiga Tanimura vs. Daiki Yonekura (Strawweight)