In spite of a late opponent change, Bantamweight Queen of Pancrase Rin Nakai cruised to a one-sided victory in flyweight action tonight at Pancrase 282 in Tokyo, Japan. Nakai dominated Charlene “The Machine” Watt en route to a second-round TKO stoppage in tonight’s co-main event.
Nakai took Watt down in both rounds and battered her opponent with strikes from the top until the bout was finally waved off. Elsewhere on the card, Krush kickboxing champion Syuri Kondo kept her perfect MMA record intact with a first-round TKO win over short-notice replacement Sharmah Devaiah.
Nakai (18-2-1) circled on the outside early on as Watt (6-3-0) stepped forward with quick jabs. Nakai landed a nice one-two and a pair of leg kicks, and she looked to set up a takedown. Watt stayed on her feet, but Nakai scored with another quick combination and effortlessly took her down to the mat. She mounted Watt and landed dozens of punches and elbows. Nakai’s ground and pound continued until the final 15 seconds of the round when she spun into an armbar.
After the cageside doctor checked on Watt’s badly swollen right eye, action resumed in round two and both fighters landed kick-punch combos. Nakai caught a kick and took Watt down into side control. She mounted Watt and postured up with punches until the fight was waved off at the 3:43 mark.
Following the fight, Rizin Fighting Federation General Manager Nobuhiko Takada entered the cage and announced that Nakai will face Kanako Murata on New Year’s Eve.
“I wanted to finish the fight in the first round, and I may have gotten the finish the with armbar if I had had more time,” Nakai said backstage. “I thank my opponent who immediately accepted the fight. My original opponent had a shorter reach than me and I was looking forward to facing her, but the opponent change meant that I had to face a fighter with greater reach again. I never get a chance to face any opponents with shorter reach, even in this lighter division.
“I will think about [Kanako] Murata later,” Nakai added. “She trained at the same judo dojo as me at a young age and I like her. I think that it’s too short of time before this next fight, and I normally do not compete on short notice, but I will fight.”
Kondo (3-0-0) walked her opponent down in the opening minute, but Devaiah (0-2-0) landed a series of chopping leg kicks. Kondo closed the distance and scored with big knees in a clinch. Devaiah broke free momentarily, but Kondo clinched again and she used more knees to set up a front choke attempt. Kondo pulled Devaiah down to the mat and took her back. Seconds later, she flattened Devaiah out and landed unanswered right hands until the bout was stopped at the 3:38 mark.
Following her quick win, Kondo thanked her team and played to the crowd by placing Pancrase CEO Masakazu Sakai in her signature Cobra Twist submission hold.
“I wanted to finish my opponent because there is a TV broadcast tonight,” Kondo stated while speaking with MMARising.com backstage. “I aim to fight in the UFC, so I don’t expect to compete [for Rizin] on New Year’s Eve. I use the Cobra Twist in pro wrestling and I want people to recognise it as my move.”
(Photo Credit: GBRing.com)