Bloody Elbow, for MMA and UFC news

Seiya Kawahara will face bantamweight King of Pancrase Manabu Inoue in a featured bout at Pancrase's Impressive Tour 3 event on May 3rd. This will be the second bout between the two, as Inoue submitted Kawahara in late 2008.

Laughter7 product Takenori Sato became the sixth welterweight King of Pancrase with a submission victory over Kengo Ura at Pancrase Impressive Tour 1 on Sunday. Also on the card, Yuki Kondo dropped a unanimous decision to the sub-.500 Hiroki Nagaoka. Akihito Tanaka, the decorated Japanese wrestler who got himself in the worst of freakshows against Bob Sapp at Dynamite!! 2008, had a successful return to MMA, defeating Yuhei Fukuda via unanimous decision. Also making a successful return was Seiya Kawahara, who was on a three fight win streak when injuries sidelined him just about a year ago. Kawahara knocked out Takumi Murata three minutes into the second round of their bantamweight contest.

Rikuhei Fujii, a rising star who joined countryman Yushin Okami in Oregon to train at Team Quest, saw his hard work pay off with a win over the legendary Yuki Kondo. Fujii won the middleweight King of Pancrase by dominating the third and final round on his way to a decision. Photo via Bout Review.

Former Cage Force lightweight champ (and ex-Spetsnaz) Artur Oumakhanov will return from a two-year MMA absence to face heavy hitter Isao Kobayashi in Pancrase on November 3. Other bouts announced for the card include a lightweight contest between Hiroki "AB" Aoki and former "Super High School Student" Tetsuya Yamada, and a flyweight match featuring title contender Isao Hirose and Hiroyuki "Katsuo" Nakajima. Photo courtesy of Pancrase.

Former flyweight King of Pancrase Mitsuhisa Sunabe (13-6-3) knocked out Shooto import Noboru "Shinpei" Tahara (9-5-1) with a vicious slam in the third round of their bout in Tokyo on Sunday. With the win, Sunabe earned a rematch against the man who took his title, current champion Kiyotaka Shimizu. In other action, Manabu Inoue (10-5-1) took a unanimous decision over Tashiro "Akai" Nishiuchi (14-7-10), defending his bantamweight title and running his current win streak to four. Inoue will next enter the quarterfinals of Sengoku's 2010 Asia Bantamweight Tournament. The main event saw light-heavyweight champ Ryo Kawamura (12-6-2) upset by journeyman Yuji Sakuragi (12-16-1, 1 NC) in a non-title affair. Sakuragi blitzed the slow-starting Kawamura from the opening bell and knocked him out with a barrage of punches just four minutes in to the match. Full results at Sherdog; photo by GBRing.

Light-Heavyweight King of Pancrase Ryo Kawamura's Toy Story-inspired walk-out shirt for this weekend's Pancrase "Passion Tour" show. Kawamura faces Yuji Sakuragi on Sunday in a non-title affair. Source: Pancrase

Former flyweight King of Pancrase Mitsuhisa Sunabe (12-6-3; pictured at right) will square off against Shooto's Noboru "Shinpei" Tahara (9-4-1) in Pancrase on September 5th, the promotion announced today during an online broadcast. The scheduled three-rounder marks the first significant interpromotional bout between Shooto and Pancrase since they ended a seven year period of non-cooperation in the Shooto ring last fall. (Read more about the feud between the two organizations in this SKILL MMA post.) Sunabe is 4-1 since moving to flyweight in 2008, but was on the wrong end of a majority decision in February and lost his title to current champ Kiyotaka Shimizu. "Shinpei" recently moved back to 123 pounds and has notched two straight wins following his November loss to Rambaa Somdet.

According to a report from Gracie Mag, former Sengoku lightweight champion Satoru Kitaoka (25-10-9) will make his Pancrase return on June 5th against Nova Uniao's "Jorjao" Rodrigues (20-4).

Former Sengoku lightweight champion Satoru Kitaoka (25-10-9) will return to the ring at Pancrase's June 5th "Passion Tour" event, the promotion announced today. No opponent was named. Photo by Daniel Herbertson for Sherdog.