Pancrase Promotes Flyweights; Changes Structure

While discussion continues to grow around the forthcoming debut of WEC's flyweight division, Pancrase is busy establishing its own.

Founding flyweight King of Pancrase Mitsuhisa Sunabe will make the first defense of his newly acquired throne at the Oct. 25 edition of Pancrase's 2009 Changing Tour when he takes on unbeaten upstart Isao Hirose at Differ Ariake in Tokyo.

On June 7, Sunabe met Takuya Eizumi to determine Pancrase's first ever flyweight king after the long-time open weight promotion introduced the division last year. After a competitive opening four minutes, the 30-year-old Okinawan brought the bout to a close in abrupt fashion with a sharp left hook.

Last week, Pancrase announced that they had changed the poundage of their flyweight division to 125, in order to comply with to the Unified Rules of MMA. Though Pancrase's other seven divisions already mirrored the weights prescribed in the Unified Rules, its flyweight division was inexplicably set at 58 kilograms, roughly 128 pounds.

Also added to the card in a flyweight affair, the aforementioned Takuya Eizumi will meet 2009's flyweight Neo-Blood Tournament champion Kiyotaka Shimizu.

A division north of 125 pounds, the card will also witness bantamweight King of Pancrase Manabu Inoue take on former Shooto world champion Masahiro Oishi in a non-title affair while 21-year-old former hot prospect Seiya Kawahara will look to recapture his previous hype against 2009 bantamweight Neo-Blood Tournament winner Ryota Sasaki.