So we had major drama before today's PANCRASE Athena Championship match between Rin Nakai and Danielle West. Predictably, Danielle missed weight and couldn't get down to 61kg. I was not surprised. She shouldn't be fighting at that weight. But it's a bigger no no in Japan than it is here. Usually when a fighter misses weight here, the penalties are financial. That's not the way it is in Japan especially if the fighter who misses weight is a gaijin. The Japanese take it as very serious disrespect. So I expected very severe penalties. There were two things. Danielle West would not be allowed to win the title. If she wins, the title is vacant. And she was not allowed to use knees or a guillotine choke. Keep in mind that both fighters had to agree to these terms. Because she missed weight, Danielle has no leverage and I'm sure PANCRASE owner Sakai was not happy with her. I know that some will complain that the second part is unfair but so is missing weight. It also appears that one of the judges protested the sanctions. He scored it 30-30 and the other two judges scored it 29-28. It looks like Rin won the first two rounds using takedowns and ground and pound. And Danielle won the third round with striking. That's how the first fight went too but the judges muffed the decision. Hopefully the fight video will turn up shortly. Hey, Sakai! Post the fight on your Youtube channel. Afterwards, Rin was happy to win the belt but wasn't happy with her own performance.
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