Kanako Murata vs Claire Fryer added to Apr. 23 PANCRASE show

Kanako Murata, Claire Fryer

PANCRASE announced today that Kanako Murata vs Claire Fryer has been added to the Apr. 23 show at Differ Ariake. Kanako is 23 years old. She wrestled in college at Nihon University. She won the 2012 All Japan Championship. She was recruited to MMA by Olympic wrestling champ Saori Yoshida who works for RIZIN. She won her first four fights and she looked pretty good. But then she challenged Rin Nakai and Rin won by submission on the Dec. 29 RIZIN show. Kanako looked bad in that fight. I didn't think she could win. But she didn't show much aggression in that fight. She obviously has skills but her stock decreased significantly after that loss. RIZIN made a barter deal with PANCRASE. For allowing Rin to appear for RIZIN, Kanako has to fight for PANCRASE. Her opponent is 37 year old Claire Fryer. She is from Brisbane, Australia and her record is 4-2. So of course her age to experience level is not good. Most of her fights have been in the Aussie regional circuit. In 2012, she beat the now retired Rina Tomita in the all women's fed Brace. Her latest fight was her first outside Australia. She lost to Jennifer Olsim on the Mar. 19, 2016 UGB show in the Philippines. So she hasn't fought in over a year. Kanako has already beaten more experienced fighters. But the loss to Rin demoralized her so promoters need to build her back up. There are some who are really high on Kanako. But I thought allowing her to fight Rin at that stage in her career was a huge error. She said at the time she wanted to find out where she stood against the best. We found out that she's not as good as some think. She needs rehabilitation and this fight should begin that process.