Arbocius Tiger who is scheduled to take on Hiromitsu Kanehara in the first round of the heavyweight tournament, and Miki Shida's opponent, Damacio Page held a practice session for the media at P'LAB in Hiroo, Tokyo.
Apparently Arbocius studied Kanehara by watching numerous videos. On the contrary, Page has never seen Shida fight before.
All of Page's six straight wins, since his pro debut in February of last year, are either by KO or submission but he has never studied the opponent before the fight. Just like his appearance, Page's fight style is supposed to be wild, and it's going to be interesting to see how his style would match against Shida who is a solid all round MMA fighter.
Page is only 23 years old, 165 cm, 63 kg.

Arbocius Tiger (right) and Damacio Page posing for the reporters at P'S LAB Tokyo.

F.Y.I Arbocius' new ring name "Tiger" was given by his master, Shidokan head Kancho Soeno. Back in the 70's, Kyokushin Karate’s founder Mas Oyama gave Kancho Soeno a nickname and it was "Tiger of Josai." And since Arbocius was born in the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac, Kancho Soeno named him, simply "Tiger."

Ex-Kyokushin fighter Ryuta Noji talked to the media on April 7th.
In the first round of the heavyweight tournament he is taking on a pro-wrestler and a former national Greco-roman champion named Takashi Sugiura but he is feeling very comfortable because he works out with solid wrestlers such as Kazuhiro Hamanaka and Yoshihiro Nakao.
And of course this former Kyokushin Karate-ka is more than comfortable with his striking ability, "If I land some punch or kick, then I am confident that he would go down."
However, at the same time, Noji is aware that Sugiura almost floored Daniel Gracie with a powerful left hook, "In the fight, I expect everything. When he get up from the ground, at that moment, I have to be cautious." (04/07/2006)

Kazuhiro Hamanaka from Inoki Office has decided to step aside and now, Hiromitsu Kanehara is in the tournament to decide heavyweight King of Pancrase.
Hamanaka's decision came last Friday. He currently trains in the same team with Ryuta Noji, who is also in this tournament, and if both Hamanaka and Noji win the first round, then they would have to fight in the semi-final.
Yoshiro Nakao, who is the leader of the team both Hamanaka and Noji train in, explained to Pancrase that "a fight between two training partners would effect their training in the future so we would like to avoid such a situation."
This is going to Kanehara's second appearance in Pancrase. He fought Yuki Kondo last year in a King of Pancrase light-heavyweight fight in Yokohama.
Kanehara went toe-to-toe exchanging hard strikes but was edged out by Kondo who defended his title in a unanimous decision.
This time, Kanehara is in the heavier division. Some may think its crazy but Kanehara is tough. He took hit after hit from Mirko Cro Cop, but still took the fight to a decision so for heavyweights, he is going to be tough to KO.
Kanehara is fighting Arbocius Tiger from Lithuania in the first round. (03/11/2006)

Ryuta Noji's opponent, in the Pancrase heavyweight tournament has been decided.
It is going to be Takashi Sugiura from the Noah, pro-wrestling organization in Japan. Sugiura was a Greco-roman national champion in 1995. He is 35 years old.
Sugiura only has two professional MMA experiences and both of them were in PRIDE. He lost to Daniel Gracie in a split decision followed by a TKO win over Giant Silva.
Pancrase currently books one of their fighters, Minoru Suzuki to the Noah pro-wrestling show, from there, these two organizations started to talk and that eventually lead to Sugiura's entry to this tournament.
Both Sugiura and Noji were at the press conference held at P's LAB in Hiroo, Tokyo.
Even after his last fight in PRIDE, Sugiura said he has been training at various MMA gyms such as Takada Dojo and Tsuyoshi "TK" Kosaka's A Square.

Takashi Sugiura (left) is back in MMA fighting in the tournament to decide the next King of Pancrase. But he has to overcome a former Kyokushin warrior Ryuta Noji (right) in the first round.

This is going to be his first MMA bout in two years, "I've stacked up enough frustrations. This is a tournament so I have to win three, and that also means I get to do three MMA fights in a year."
Sugiura is psyched up about coming back to MMA.
Right after Noji turned to MMA from Kyokushin Karate, he actually practiced a few times with Sugiura. Sugiura said, "He was quiet, courteous, it threw me for a loop" while Noji remembered about the details of practices, "I remember we did only grappling practice. His strength was amazing."
Noji, then followed with his thoughts on this fight, "I haven't seen his video yet but I am going to be cautious of his grappling power."

This is an eight-man tournament and Noji vs. Sugiura is the first match of the B bracket. Pancrase will announce the names of two fighters who are going to be fighting in the other first round matches.
The first round matches of the A bracket were held back on January 26th and Yuji Sakuragi and Poai Suganuma advanced to the semi-final scheduled to be held on May 2nd.
The semi-final of the B bracket is going to be on June 6th.
The final is going to be sometime during the summer.
All matches are going to be at Korakuen Hall, Japan's mecca of fight sports. (02/10/2006)

SEGA SAMMY Presents PANCRASE 2006 BLOW TOUR
Sunday, April 9th,2006
At Differ Ariake, Tokyo, Japan
Door Open: 15:00
Fight Starts: 16:00

8th Match - King of Pancrase Heavyweight Tournament B Block First Round Match 5 min / 2R

Ryuta Noji (Japan / Pancrase GARO) vs. Takashi Sugiura (Japan / Pro-Wrestling Noah)

7th Match - King of Pancrase Heavyweight Tournament B Block First Round Match 5 min / 2R

Hiromitsu Kanehara (Japan / Freelance) vs. Arbocius Tiger (Lithuania / Shido-kan Karate)

6th Match - Middleweight Match 5 min / 3R

Yuji Hisamatsu (Japan / Wajiu-tsu Keishu-kai Tiger Place) vs. Daisuke Watanabe (Japan / Pancrase-ism)

5th Match - Featherweight 5 min / 3R

Miki Shida (Japan / Pancraes P'LAB Tokyo) vs. Damacio Page (U.S.A. / Jacksons Submission Fighting)

4th Match - Middleweight Bout 5 min / 2R

Yuichi Nakanishi (Japan / Freelance) vs. Kozo Urita (Japan / Seiken Kaikan)

3rd Match - Welterweight Bout 5 min / 2R

Takuya Wada (Japan / SK Absolute) vs. Shinsuke Shoji (Japan / KILLER BEE)

2nd Match - Featherweigth Bout 5 mi / 2R

Atsuhi Yamamoto (Japan / KILLER BEE) vs. Takumi Murata (Japan / Wajiu-tsu Keishu-kai A-3)

1st Match - Middleweight Bout 5 min / 2R

Ichirou Kanai (Japan / Pancrase-ism) vs. Moriyuki Yamamda (Japan / Team POD)

Ticket Prices:
SS - 12,000 yen
A - 8,000 yen
B - 6,500 yen
C - 4,000 yen
*500 yen more at the door.