Official Pancrase Rankings - October 2009

Flyweight (58.0kg)
1st Flyweight King of Pancrase
Mitsuhisa Sunabe (10-5-3 / freelance)

#1: Isao Hirose (6-0 / Strapple)
#2: Takuya Eizumi (5-2 / Bumonkai MMA Dojo)

No changes here this month, but all three of Pancrase's ranked flyweights fight on this Sunday's "Changing Tour" card. King Hippo Sunabe will try for his first title defense against the unbeaten Hirose, while Eizumi looks to get back into contention against Kiyotaka Shimizu.

Bantamweight (58.0kg - 61.2kg)
1st Bantamweight King of Pancrase
Manabu Inoue (7-5-1 / U.W.F. Snakepit Japan)

#1: Seiya Kawahara (7-2 / P's Lab Yokohama)

No movement, but Inoue and Kawahara will both be in action on Saturday against Masahiro "Jackal" Oishi and Ryota Sasaki, respectively.

Featherweight (61.2kg - 65.8kg)
1st Featherweight King of Pancrase
Marlon Sandro (14-1 / Nova Uniao)

#1: Jameel Massouh (21-6 / Freestyle Academy)
#2: Masaya "J-Taro" Takita (9-12-2 / Wajyutsu Keisyukai Tokyo)
#3: Masanori Kanehara (15-7-5 / Team ZST)
#4: Kenji Arai (15-13-3 / PANCRASEism)
#5: Tashiro "Akai" Nishiuchi (11-5-10 / Nova Uniao Japan)

No fluctuation here. King Sandro's next fight will most likely be for Sengoku; same for Masanori Kanehara, who'll also participate on the November 24th ZST show. Meanwhile, top-ranked Jameel Massouh has lost two straight WEC decisions, to Raphael Assuncao and Leonard Garcia.

Lightweight (65.8kg - 70.3kg)
3rd Lightweight King of Pancrase
Maximo Blanco (4-2-1, 1 NC / Yoshida Dojo)

#1: Koji Oishi (19-8-6 / PANCRASEism)
#2: Katsuya Inoue (18-7-4 / Wajyutsu Keisyukai RJW)
#2: Satoru Kitaoka (25-9-9 / PANCRASEism)
#3: Daisuke "13" Hanazawa (12-11-5 / Cobra Kai MMA Dojo)
#4: Hiroki "AB" Aoki (2-2 / Wajyutsu Keisyukai Suruga)

After a big shakeup in August, the lightweights stay put this month. New king Maximo Blanco is on a torrid pace, having already fought five times this year, with number six coming up at November's Sengoku 11 against ZST's former "Super High School Student," Tetsuya Yamada. Word is he'll also be on Sengoku's NYE show, so it's likely he won't defend his title until early next year.

At this weekend's show, "AB" Aoki faces unbeaten Sakaguchi Dojo prospect Isao Kobayashi, whose four wins have all come by way of knockout.

Welterweight (70.3kg - 77.1kg)
4th Welterweight King of Pancrase
Takuya Wada (18-8-9, 1 NC / SK Absolute)

#1: ↑ Shingo Suzuki (3-2-1 / Alliance-Square)
#2: ↓ Tomoyoshi Iwamiya (6-10 / Takada Dojo)
#2: ↓ Masahiro Toryu (6-4-5, 1 NC / PANCRASEism)
#3: ↓ Hiroyuki Nozawa (10-5-4 / Stand)

Takuya Wada fights PFC/WEC veteran Kengo Ura in a non-title bout this weekend.

Alliance-Square's Shingo Suzuki enters the rankings following last weekend's main event whipping of former #1 Tomoyoshi Iwamiya at Shinjuku Face.

Middleweight (77.1kg - 83.9kg)
7th Middleweight King of Pancrase
Izuru Takeuchi (25-10-7 / SK Absolute)

Interim Middleweight King of Pancrase
Yuki Kondo (50-23-6 / PANCRASEism)

#1: Takenori Sato (9-6-5 / Laughter7)
#2: Ichiro Kanai (9-10-3 / PANCRASEism)
#3: Keiichiro Yamamiya (36-24-9 / Grabaka)

Light Heavyweight (83.9kg - 93kg)
4th Light Heavyweight King of Pancrase
Ryo Kawamura (10-5-2 / PANCRASEism)

Heavyweight (93kg - 120.2kg)
4th Heavyweight King of Pancrase
vacant

Openweight
10th Openweight King of Pancrase
Josh Barnett (24-5 / CSW)