PANCRASE women's tournament to feature Rin Nakai

Rin Nakai, Masakazu Sakai

It was back in March that WINDY Tomomi retired after many years with PANCRASE. So the big question at the time was what is PANCRASE going to do with women's MMA. Last month SMASH president Masakazu Sakai took over the company. Today Sakai held a press conference at the SMASH office to announce that Rin Nakai has signed an exclusive contract with PANCRASE. Of course readers of this blog will know that Rin is one of Japan's top female fighters. She trains at Shooto Shikoku and her record is 11-0-1. Her last win was over Kyoko Kimura on the May 20 PANCRASE show in Okinawa. But now she is exclusive to PANCRASE. Sakai announced that Rin's first fight will be part of a women's MMA tournament beginning Sept. 1 at Differ Ariake. It will be called Queen Of PANCRASE. Sakai says he's not sure if the tournament will have four or eight fighters. The weight class will be less that 61.2kg. Sakai has made an open call for any fighters in this weight class who want to be in this tournament to contact PANCRASE by July 8. Fighters can apply by email at office@pancrase.co.jp or on Twitter @_pancrase #pancrase_rin or by fax at 03-5339-9198. If sending by email, the header should read "Rin Nakai engagement". They are looking for gaijin fighters. I don't believe there are enough Japanese fighters in that weight class to do a decent tournament. Sakai says he is expecting great success for this tournament. Of course Rin has already had a championship with VALKYRIE. She says she wants the first PANCRASE belt. So fighters, here's an opportunity for you. Be sure to grab it.