Asian MMA Weekend Update May 24-26 2019 - Pancrase 305 recap, RIZIN and DEEP Jewels news

Summary: We start this recap in Japan which will be the same place we finish it with Pancrase 305, and then we have some interesting news bits to cover from Rizin and Deep Jewels. Pancrase 305 was a really good card, I’ve been watching Pancrase since back in the day so I really enjoy their shows on a nostalgia level. I’m going to put the full results up at AsianMMAPodcast.com so you can check that out there. First I want to talk about the main event where we saw Isao Kobayashi unify the featherweight strap against a game intern champ Nazareno Malegarie. This was a 5 round banger that had me on the edge of my seat. I had both men winning two rounds going into the 5th This is where Kobayashi turned it up and put on a pressure to win the round and secure the victory to unify the belts. Talk about a fight to cap off a great card, this was it, this was the fight you wanted to have. The back and forth, the drama, the story that emerged. This is what fighting should be. The other fight on this card that really stood out to me was between two legends of the game, Yuki Kondo and Akihiro Gono. Both have careers spanning back to the 1990s and have fought in the biggest organizations in the world, UFC, Pride, Shooto, Deep, K1 and of course Pancrase. Just what an epic match to have on the card. This one went all three rounds and saw Kondo take the unanimous decision win. And it was the pressure and work rate from Kondo that made the difference in this fight. Fantastic fight, if you haven’t seen it, go watch it. Moving on This coming weekend we have RIZIN 16, which looks to be an awesome card. For sure I’ll be covering that in next weeks weekend update. But they also announced that RIZIN fighter Rena Kubota will be facing Lindsey VanZandt at Bellator 222 June 14th at MSG. This will be Rena’s first time fighting outside of Japan, so it will be interesting to see how she does. That time shift can be difficult going in both directions. But hopefully, that won’t be a factor. In other news from Japan, we now know that UFC, Rizin and Pancrase veteran Rin Nakai will return after more than a year away from the sport at Deep Jewels 24 on June 9th. Her opponent will be 0-2 Thai fighter Kaew Prachumwong. Both of her previous fights have been in Bangkok based promotion Full Metal Dojo, Here’s and odd fact, I reffed her last fight back in 2017 which was a losing bid against Cambodian fighter Tharoth Sam. I hate to say she’s just being fed to Rin as a tune-up, but that’s sort of how it seems. To stay up to date with all things Asian MMA Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Sticher, YouTube, and Facebook. I’ll have all the links in the show notes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Follow Asian MMA Podcast Ever