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| Danielle West, Rin Nakai |
When PANCRASE announced their Queen Of PANCRASE tournament and Rin Nakai won her semi final match over Ultra Benkei, a second semi final match was promised with the final to be held in January. The plan was to bring in a gaijin to fight a Japanese fighter. The problem is there are very few Japanese female fighters at 61kg. So PANCRASE has decided to switch gears and have announced that Rin Nakai will face British fighter Danielle West for the Queen Of PANCRASE Championship on the Dec. 1 Differ Ariake show. PANCRASE PR rep Yasushi Sakamoto admitted they couldn't find a decent opponent to face Danielle in the semi final. Of course this is a rematch from the Sept. 4, 2001 fight that was ruled a split draw. I scored the fight 29-28 for Rin so I thought the judges messed up. I analyzed the fight in detail at the time after watching the match and posting it on the blog. Rin's big mistake in that fight was agreeing to it at 70kg and then weighing in at 67kg. This fight will be at 61.2kg (135lb) which is Rin's usual fighting weight. Rin now trains at PANCRASE Venus in Tokyo. Her record is 12-0-1 and her last win was over Ultra Benkei by TKO on the Sept. 1 PANCRASE show. Rin is short at 5'1" but she has more punching power than most Japanese female fighters and she is very quick on the ground. She competed in amateur grappling as a teen and as a child she was a competitive gymnast. Danielle trains at New Wave in London. Her record is 4-4-1 and her last fight was a loss to Julia Budd by TKO on the Oct. 6 Invicta show. Danielle was a late replacement and did not appear to be in the best shape. She normally fights at 70kg (155lb) and has also fought at 145. I'm not sure if she has ever fought at 135. Maybe once from what I could tell. I wonder what she will be like after the weight cut. Danielle has a height advantage but Rin is a lot quicker and may be stronger at 135. It looks like this will be the main event of the show so it should be very interesting.
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