Pancrase Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Mixed martial artspromotion
Predecessor	Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi World Pancrase Create Inc.
Founded	1993; 32 years ago (1993)
Founders	Masakatsu Funaki Minoru Suzuki Ken Shamrock
Headquarters	Tokyo , Japan
Key people	Hidetaka Fukui (chief chairman)
Owner	Pancrase Executive Committee
Website	pancrase.co.jp

Pancrase (パンクラス,Pankurasu) is a Japanesemixed martial arts (MMA)promotion company based inTokyo. It was founded in 1993 by professional wrestlersMasakatsu Funaki andMinoru Suzuki.

The name was based onpankration, a fighting sport in the Ancient Olympic Games. Suzuki and Funaki practicedcatch wrestling. They based the promotion and its rules on professional wrestling. The promotion's champions were called "King of Pancrase".

The rules allowed closed-fisted punches, except to the head, and palm strikes to the head. A wrestler must break a submission hold when the opponent reaches the ropes, but a wrestler who claims a rope break loses a point. A wrestler who claims a specified number of rope breaks (between 3 and 5) was disqualified. From 1998 to 2000, the promotion changed its rules to resemble other mixed martial arts promotions.

Beginning in 2007, Pancrase: Legends of Mixed Martial Arts aired weekly on ImaginAsian TV. The network folded in 2011.

In 2008, the Fight Network began airing Pancrase events in Canada and the United Kingdom.

In 1993,Masakatsu Funaki,Minoru Suzuki,Ken Shamrock,Takaku Fuke, and others from the shoot-styleFujiwara Gumi wrestling promotion left the company, due to (mentor and promoter)Yoshiaki Fujiwara's decision to cooperate with the likes ofUniversal Lucha Libre and W*ING and favoring showmanship over in-ring work. As suggested byKarl Gotch, Pancrase was formed by Funaki, Suzuki and Fuke, and the promotion would focus on pure shoot-stylewrestling with limited gimmicks and no predetermined outcomes.

Funaki and Suzuki were students of wrestlerAntonio Inoki. They were inspired by the 1976Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki event that pit a boxer against a wrestler.^[1][2]

On May 16, 1993, they establishedWorld Pancrase Create Inc. (WPC) with the capital of 30,000,000 Japanese yen.^[3][4]

On September 21, 1993, Pancrase promoted their first event atTokyo Bay NK Hall. All the matches were finished with knockout and submission.

The first King Of Pancrase Open Weight champion wasKen Shamrock (later becoming famous for his exploits in theUltimate Fighting Championship), who had previous experience in the newbornUWF and Fujiwara Gumi. Over the years, Funaki and Suzuki held the title alongside other big names, such asBas Rutten,Frank Shamrock andGuy Mezger.

Pancrase now recognizes King of Pancrase titles in the super heavyweight, heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight and welterweight divisions, and there are plans to award new lightweight and featherweight champions in the future. The open weight title was recently restored and is currently held byJosh Barnett, who formerly competed inPRIDE and theUltimate Fighting Championship. Minoru Suzuki no longer competes for Pancrase, as he returned to regular professional wrestling in 2003 as a freelancer.

Pancrase Korea is theSouth Korean subsidiary of the Pancrase Inc. and held several events from 2007 to 2010. The first Pancrase Korea event was an amateur one held on March 10, 2007, inBusan and the last one was the semi-professionalNeo-Blood Tournament 2 & Hybrid Challenge 12 held on September 12, 2010, inSeoul.^[5][6]

In May 2008, "Pancrase Inc." was established as a new management company for Pancrase, and WPC alienated Pancrase Inc. their all of business as on May 27, 2008. When Pancrase Inc. was established, Yasushi Sakamoto, a managing director of WPC, was installed as the executive president.

On October 14, 2008, Pancrase Inc. moved its office toNishi Ikebukuro in the ward of Toshima inTokyo.^[7]

In September 2009, Pancrase Inc. moved its office fromNishi Ikebukuro toAobadai in ward of Meguro in Tokyo, and moved again toKameido in the ward of Koto.^[8]

On October 1, 2010,Ryo Kawamura, who was the currentmixed martial artist was installed as the executive president. Yasushi Sakamoto, the former president, had become a managing director.

Kawamura held a press conference inYokohama, Kanagawa, on October 22, and explained about restructuring and announced that "Commission Council" had been established as a third party.^[9][10]

On June 1, 2012, Pancrase announced that the promotion had been sold to Masakazu Sakai and hisSmash organization, with Sakai taking over as the new president and his partnerYuji Shimada as the event producer of the promotion. As part of the reconstruction of Pancrase, the new owners intend to replace rings with cages, holding events to test the new format in 2013.^[11][12][13]

Pancrase 257 on March 30, 2014, was the last event where Pancrase used a ring, and by Pancrase 258 on May 11, 2014, Pancrase adopted the decagon or the ten-sided cage of their American partnersWorld Series of Fighting.^[14][15]

On March 9, 2022, the Smash Martial Arts Department Pancrase Business Headquarters will be reorganized and operated as the "Pancrase Executive Committee".

In addition, the King of Pancrase Executive Committee will also be reorganized and operated as the "King of Pancrase Council".^[16]

Aside from the traditional grappling rules (e.g., no biting, no eye-gouging) the rules were formerly as follows:

• No elbows to the head (neither while standing nor on the ground).
• No closed-fist strikes to the head (neither while standing nor on the ground).
• No knees to the head on the ground.
• No kicks/stomps to the head on the ground.
• If a participant gets too close to the ropes, he is stood back up on the feet. (as opposed to PRIDE's re-centering in the middle of the ring)
• Non-title matches consist of one 15 minute round, while title matches consist of one 30 minute round.
• If a participant is caught in a submission and taps out (whether unable to reach the ropes or not), it is a loss.
• Five "escapes" are given to each fighter at the start of every match. An escape can be used when caught in a submission near the ropes, in which case the participant can grab them, be stood back on the feet and have one point deducted. Once a participant has used all of his escapes, it is a loss.
• For knockouts, a ten-count similar to boxing and kickboxing is used. If the participant is unable to answer the ten-count, it is declared a TKO and that fighter has lost the match. However, if the participant is able to answer the ten-count, the fight resumes and one point is deducted.
• If, at the end of regulated time, neither fighter has submitted, been knocked out, or lost all their points, a decision is rendered based on who lost fewer points. If neither fighter lost any points, or both lost the same number of points, the fight is declared a draw.
• In the 1994 King of Pancrase tournament, the rules were slightly different, in that the first round had one 10-minute round and three rope escapes, and the finals had one 20-minute round with three rope escapes.
• For a short period of time whenBas Rutten was the King of Pancrase, heelhooks were banned because of the frequency of injuries.
• Strikes on the ground – whether closed fist to the body or open hand to the head – were discouraged by the fans, but still legal.

AfterPancrase: Breakthrough 1 held on January 19, 1999, Pancrase began to use a ruleset similar to that ofPride FC, but prohibits knees to the head of grounded opponents.

In May 2016, Pancrase adopted theAssociation of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports rules, better known as theUnified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.

The current weight division system of Pancrase is based upon theUnified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts since December 4, 2007. At this time, Pancrase also announced establishment ofFlyweight andBantamweight, and abolition ofSuper heavyweight. On March 18, 2011, Pancrase restructured their weight classes adding several more lower weight classes. In addition, they introduced the Queen Of Pancrase title which will be used for women's fights in the future.^[17]

Men's division	Champion	Title Defenses
Heavyweight (120 kg (264.6 lb))	Vacant
Light Heavyweight (93 kg (205 lb))
Middleweight (84 kg (185.2 lb))	Yura Naito	0
Welterweight (77 kg (169.8 lb))	Ryuichiro Sumimura	0
Lightweight (70 kg (154.3 lb))	Tatsuya Saika	0
Featherweight (66 kg (145.5 lb))	Suguru Nii	0
Bantamweight (61 kg (134.5 lb))	Tokitaka Nakanishi	0
Flyweight (57 kg (125.7 lb))	Seiichiro Ito	1
Strawweight (52 kg (114.6 lb))	Keito Yamakita	0
Women's Bantamweight (61 kg (134.5 lb))	Vacant
Women's Flyweight (57 kg (125.7 lb))	Shizuka Sugiyama	0
Women's Strawweight (52 kg (114.6 lb))	Haruka Hasegawa	0
Women's Atomweight (47.6 kg (104.9 lb))	Satomi Takano	0

• List of Pancrase events
• Pankration, an ancient Greek martial art

• Pancrase Website
• Pancrase event results at sherdog
• Wrestling-Titles.com: Pancrase

• Pancrase
• Hybrid martial arts
• Japanese professional wrestling promotions
• Mixed martial arts promotions
• Entertainment companies established in 1993
• 1993 establishments in Japan

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