Kondo, Kyle Victorious in Pancrase

TOKYO, Oct. 2 — Tonight the Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium played host to the Pancrase Spiral 8 show, originally headlined by a rematch between Sanae Kikuta (Pictures) and Yuki Kondo (Pictures) for the promotion’s light heavyweight title. However, Kikuta, the Grabaka boss, suffered a torn ligament in his right knee during training and was forced to pull out.

Pancrase then announced that RINGS and PRIDE veteran Hiromitsu Kanehara (Pictures) would step up to the plate to face Kondo in a non-title fight.

This match turned out to be a real slugfest on the feet, with both fighters staggering each other several times. Kondo outclassed Kanehara slightly in the boxing department, linking his punches together and pushing his opponent around the ring. However, at points in the fight the light heavyweight champion did have problems getting around the kicks employed by Kanehara.

Kanehara had an impressive kneebar attempt from the clinch in the first, following with a strong guillotine attempt to finish out the round. The third period saw the champion scoring takedowns, taking side control and working to the mount. Kanehara shrimped hard and got to his feet before receiving any significant damage from Kondo on the mat.

This entertaining bout went the distance and in the end Kondo received the unanimous decision.

In a non-title match-up, tough American and Team “Cro Cop” member Mike Kyle (Pictures) faced off against well-known veteran Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (Pictures). Kyle, who looked bigger than his Japanese opponent, seemed quite satisfied to keep this affair standing. Kohsaka, on the other hand, was constantly shooting in trying to score takedowns.

Kohsaka displayed his chin in this one because he took a lot of hard strikes throughout. In the second, Kyle landed and absolutely vicious flying knee to Kohsaka’s head just as the Japanese fighter was coming in for a shot. This sent Kohsaka reeling back to the canvas and opened a cut on his head, which had to be checked by the doctors.

The Japanese grappler was quite active when on his back, moving and attempting submissions. But he took several soccer kicks when his takedown attempts failed, causing blood to pour from the cut on his head.

In the third round, Kyle received a yellow card for an unintentional “finger to the eye” after throwing a punch. Kohsaka’s eye swelled badly and the fight doctor was called to make an assessment. After a long pause in the ring and a lot of talking amongst the referees, judges and the Pancrase brass in attendance, it was announced that, while Kohsaka wanted to continue, the doctor insisted that the fight be stopped.

The contest went to the scorecards and Kyle received the unanimous decision.

PANCRASEism fighter Satoru Kitaoka (Pictures) faced off against Carlos Condit. The American fighter had a big reach advantage over his Japanese opponent but didn’t really get the chance to exploit it due to being taken down early in the match.

On his back, Condit had a good attempt at a Kimura, but Kitaoka fought this off and went for his patented heelhook. After a bit of struggling the Japanese fighter clamped on the technique, forcing his opponent to tap.

Japanese fighter Lee Segak dominated in his fight against Yuji Sakuragi (Pictures), taking good positions and finishing with an arm-triangle in the second round.

PANCRASEism fighter Hikaru Sato (Pictures) showed a lot of heart in his fight against Hawaiian Poai Suganuma, fighting to twist back into guard when his opponent took his back and trading punches on his fee. But in the end it was Suganuma who walked away with the decision.

Russian fighter Aslan Dzeboev (Pictures) continued his winning ways with a knockout victory off a big right hook against former All Japan pro wrestler Masayuki Kono.

Pancrase veteran Yoshiki Takahashi (Pictures) pulled out a decision victory in his battle against Latvian Karate fighter Kestutis Abocious.