Satoru Kitaoka Faces Milton Vieira at Pancrase on August 8th

On August 8th, Pancrase finally announced Satoru Kitaoka's opponent. Milton Vieira, who was scheduled to fight in the BodogFIGHT Vancouver show (one of many fighters abruptly dropped from that show) is now in The Main Event of Pancrase.

Milton, in his first fight in Japan took Hayato "Mach" Sakurai to a decision, and then went to DEEP and defeated Hiroki Nagaoka, then loosing a decision to Nobuhiro Obiya, and earning a draw against Kazunori Yokota. For Kitaoka, this is his first Pancrase appearance since his win over Gustavo PC back in February. After that fight, Kitaoka expressed his desire to fight in PRIDE, and went to DEEP to fight Fabricio "Pitbull" Monteiro to get a right to compete in the Lightweight GP. However because of the uncertain future of PRIDE Kitaoka decided to come back to fight in a Pancrase show.

After tasting the first defeat of his professional career against Fabio Silva on May 30th, Ryo Kawamura is coming right back to face another tough opponent, this time from the United States. Jamie Fletcher, a 30-year old fighter from The Shark Tank in California is his next opponent.

Fletcher is a regular in Eddy Mill's Invincible Fighting Championship and has the professional record of 8 wins and 2 losses. Kawamura, at the post-fight press conference held on July 28th told the media, "Since my next opponent is American, I came here dressed like this" explaining the reason for wearing a US-flag designed shirt he got on his birthday, "Since I have no information on my opponent, I thought I should make the first move. President Ozaki said this is my comeback fight but I am always in good condition. In September I am going to make this fight more intense and bright than any other fight."

Daisuke Watanabe is taking on Alavutdin Gadzhiyev, the man who smoked his junior fellow Ichiro Kanai in a Pancrase March show. Gadzhiyev is a cousin of Artur Oumakhanov and has won a Russian tournament that allows head butting.

The other big fight is Izuru Takeuchi vs. Bryan Rafiq because the winner of this bout will earn the right to challenge the King of Pancrase title held by Yuichi Nakanishi. In December Takeuchi lost to Nakanishi in a split decision and failed to capture the belt for the third time but came back with a complete win over Daisuke Watanabe in April of this year.

Rafiq first came to Japan to compete in the MARS middleweight tournament last year lost a tight match to the tough Daniel Tabera of Spain in the final. He then made a Pancrase debut in April, and defeated Hikaru Sato with a powerful ground and pound. Both fighters' are known for their ground technique. Takeuchi has got judo, wrestling and sambo under his belt and Rafiq's base is jiu-jitsu. Takeuchi has the edge in the experience department but 21-year old Rafiq has a tremendous rushing power. It’s going to be a thrilling fight.

At last, to commemorate "The God of Professional Wrestling" Mr. Karl Gotch, who passed away on July 28th at age 82, Pancrase officially named this show the "Karl Gotch Remembrance Show." Gotch left a profound impact on the fighting philosophy of Pancrase co-founders Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki, and Gotch is actually the "godparent" that came up with the name PANCRASE.

Source: www.pancrase.co.jp