Imagine living in New York City perhaps, you want to work out but you can't afford to pay thousands of dollars a year to belong to the gym, with their squirrel treadmills, and Hollywood video game films showing on the big screen TV while they sell latte power shakes in the lounge area. So what does one do? You start running, jumping rope, stretching on the floor, and maybe even join one of the local city facilities, all grungy and reeking of the masses that have trampled through them throughout the years. Call it crazy (BAKA), but poverty is the true mother of invention! You lift some free weights, use the universal machines, catch a swim maybe? Meanwhile the other people lifting and spotting are all trying to impress each other attempting ridiculous amounts of weight. But anyways, the point is, like New Orleans, this is a rougher and tougher crowd.

Now imagine you live in Tokyo, you and your buddies want to roll around but the tatami floor is too painful. Tatami burns on the face won't do anymore, so you look for a place with mats. Just like jumping into a swimming pool in NYC, or jumping in a city facility in Japan, the cost is minimal, especially compared to private facilities and gyms. Now, imagine grappling (GRAB) with these dudes that you've never met before, and everyone's got something to prove. "No thank You!" you might say. You're right; once again this is a hardcore crowd, and in Japan they are making a visible dent in MMA. They pay a small fee to roll around on the mats at the local public gyms, they are awesome, scary, rough and tumble; they are GRABAKA.

Fighters from GRABAKA are very well represented in Pancrase. As a matter of fact in their tenth anniversary celebration fights, almost half of the fighters on the bill came from GRABAKA. These are urban warriors that sweat up the mats at the local Japanese public facilities, and then step into one of the most traditional and perhaps the toughest MMA event in the world, Pancrase.

One such top fighter is Sinae Kikuta; we could perhaps call him the Sakuraba of Pancrase or the leader of the GRABAKA pack. **This dude is as tough as nails, and no one had been able to defeat him in MMA in quite awhile. On the night of Pancrase's 10th Anniversary event last summer, he took on one hit wonder Elvis Sinosic, from the land of AC/DC and The Birthday Party, whose claim to fame is catching Jeremy Horn in an arm bar in UFC 30. As soon as Sinosic threw a right low kick, Kikuta immediately kept it, sweeping out the support leg for a take down and half mount. Although Elvis is a Jiu-jitsu man, Kikuta had no problem passing his guard various times in this encounter. Kikuta softens him with strikes to the head and attempts a neck and shoulder lock from the mount. Kikuta then steps over the side in order to wrench the lock tighter, but Elvis is lanky, slippery and flexible, and gets out. With Elvis back on his guard, Kikuta starts delivers leg kicks and then the bell. The next round Elvis lands a low kick catching Kikuta off balance, but gets taken down again and eats a hard straight right. They roll around; Kikuta reverses him, keeping an ankle to get side control. With Elvis back in his guard, Kikuta rides too high and Sinosic gets out the back door. The rest of the action would be similar with Kikuta controlling the fight, mounting, and pounding. He tries to extend an elbow with a Kimura, but Elvis is sneaky. The third round was a repeat of the first, with Elvis kicking and being taken down with a single. Elvis then spends most of the third in a full guard avoiding strikes and another arm bar attempt. Sinosic displays very good defensive work, protecting himself well, but is gassed out by the end. As he heaves, Kikuta looks completely relaxed and ready for more. Although he couldn't finish it, the Grabaka leader was definitely superior, with the judges calling it unanimously at 3-0.

If you want to know how tough these GRABAKA guys are, just ask Ricardo Almeida, the current Middleweight King of Pancrase. Ricardo had to get through a very tough fight against Yuki Sasaki on April 2003 in the Hybrid Tour, before encountering a tough as nails Kazuo Misaki before a shot at the title.

His fight against Misaki went to the judge's cards, with Almeida turning it on with pure guts, and getting a unanimous judges decision in a great match. In the 10th anniversary encounter with Kazuo Misaki, Almeida himself said he had to get "creative" to score since "they all have very good ground work..... they can in many ways neutralize my best weapons." Misaki is a tough and gruff looking veteran who never gives up and perhaps took the first round from Almeida, getting the takedown and controlling from his feet with strikes to Almeida's guard. Ricardo got the wake up call and turned it on at the end of the first, and the next two rounds, but not without bleeding after dropping some Mongolian chops on Misaki. Almeida called out to the crowd, "I'm okay!" worried the fight might be stopped. Ricardo now has a nice little scar above the eye to remember that one by. Fortunately, the doctors didn't end the contest and Almeida won a close contest with two judges favoring him and the other calling it a draw. Almeida worked hard from the standing position delivering combinations, a couple foot stomps, and elbows to the body. The two exhausted warriors smiled and displayed a mutual respect after a very grueling physical war.

In this event Yuki Sasaki (GRABAKA) took out Team Quest Greco man Heath Sims. Although Sasaki had the reach advantage Sims could not take it to the ground and was forced to trade strikes in the stand up. Sasaki preferred to keep it standing, and could not finish of the American grappler. Simms gets credit for playing the strikers game, but overall it was an anticlimactic encounter.

This celebration was not all about GRABAKA though, as Chute Boxe fighter Nielsen De Castro accidentally and prematurely ended his match against Akihiro Gono, when his second low kick landed on the cup. It was too bad that this match ended this way, as Gono writhed in the ring for a while, then vomiting from the pain. De Castro seemed legitimately disappointed exiting the arena. His first kick was a left, which landed inside Gono's left inner thigh, but the second caught a delayed reaction from the Japanese fighter who never recovered after going to the floor and was taken out on a stretcher. In a special grappling rules only match in Pancrase's Tenth Birthday Party event was the Minoru Suzuki (a former NJPW pro-wrestler and co-fouder of Pancrase) - Takashi Iizuka (current NJPW pro-wrestler) encounter. This started out like a boring pro-wrestling dance, after Suzuki seemed to have battled his barber, and lost. These two single handedly brought down the level of the show, both unwilling to engage in the first round, with the only highlight being a toe lock attempt by Susuki in the second. In the end Susuki won the match, and to his credit, it's still a pleasure for his fans to watch him grappling after suffering from a neurological condition which stunned the development of half his body.

One of the best fights of the evening was between a much smaller Osami Shibuya 88k (Pancrase) against NJPW pro-wrestler Toru Yano 110k. The bigger wrestler immediately embraced Shibuya's upper body, pushing him against the ropes. He eventually got the takedown and landed a few shots as Shibuya went to the full guard. Shibuya kept his cool while defending from the guard as they moved them to the middle of the quadrilateral before the end of round one. The second round started the same way, with the big man clinching Shibuya against the ropes. But Shibuya creates distance pushing forward, stepping back, and landing a combination to Toru's face. He follows up with a takedown, full mount, G n P to set up the arm bar, and blam! Elbow extends, opposite limb taps out in reaction to extreme pain. Shibuya is a very tough and talented athlete who I'm sure would like another shot at Almeida.

Another high point was the intensely energetic battle between Crosley Gracie (Gracie/Barra) and Shibuya's stallmate Kiuma Kunioku at 81.3 kilos. Crosley seems to be following his corner man Ralf Gracie's advise, keeping it standing. He is strong, aggressive, utilizing knees to the body, landing straight lefts repeatedly as well as low kicks. He showed great take down technique, but Kunioku had a great guard, forcing it back to their feet. This was an exciting striking fest, where each fighter landed some hard kicks and fists, but it was Crosley's left hook to the head that did the greatest damage, rocking his opponent to the floor. In the final round Gracie connected with a hard straight left, followed with a back spinning high kick, which barely missed the bleeding samurai. Crosley is perhaps on his way to becoming a future King of Pancrase.

The main event would be between a very dynamic and pumped up Yuki Kondo 86.9 k against a much heavier, taller, and bigger boned Josh Barnet 113.8 kilos. Shinny, illuminating the prestige it demands, the belt is first displayed to the crowd and then shown to each fighter. This was Barnet's first shot at an MMA title in two years since he was stripped of the UFC Heavyweight belt. In the first round although Josh kept Yuki against the ropes, he exerted a lot of energy trying to control him. A head taller, Josh clinched and landed knees to the body, showing his superior frame. Yuki put in the under hooks and defended with his knees. Yuki's calm reserve reminded me of Funaki, when Rickson kept him against one corner of the quad. As they exchange knees from this clinch, Yuki tilts Josh's head back with a couple of upper cuts. Josh steps back landing a left right combination but Yuki responds with a left right followed by two solid lefts. Josh realizes he shouldn't play this game. By the end of the round Yuki looks fresher and Josh has blood in his nostrils. In the second and third round Josh applied three bear hugs which led to take downs and easily stepped over Yuki's guard due to sheer size. Yuki escapes out the back door and gets up. Each time they exchange standing, it is clear Yuki is a superior striker. Finally in the third round after a couple suplex, as Josh rained down fists, an overwhelmed Yuki gave him his back and Barnet finished by rear naked choke. Barnet said that this was the toughest fight in his career. I think Josh is lucky that Yuki is not as large as he is, but on the other hand Barnet is looking leaner every day, it must be the sushi and seaweed regiment.

Although there were no full-out Bushido wars or belligerent packs in this birthday bash, the GRABAKA pack proved that they are an institution within the institution of Pancrase. In the end, Josh Barnet became the third American to be honored as Openweight King of Pancrase, following the first King Ken Shamrock and the seventh King Guy Metzger, both from The Lions Den.

Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Sanae Kikuta which will be up soon.