PANCRASE has added Takayo Hashi vs Barbara Acioly to their Feb. 4 show at PANCRASE's new arena Studio Coast. For those who haven't heard, Differ Ariake will be demolished. This bout will be at Flyweight. PANCRASE is trumpeting this as their first fight in cooperation with Invicta. As I said at the time, I don't expect much to come from this alliance. And this fight doesn't convince me otherwise. It's about what I expected. Until PANCRASE books a more significant fight, the Invicta deal is window dressing. Maybe that's all they want. Look, we all know Takayo Hashi. She is now 40 years old. She was a decent fighter ten years ago. She hasn't fought for over two years. I was hoping she retired. No such luck. She hasn't been much good since knee surgery slowed her down a few years ago. Anyone trying to trumpet Hashi as a beacon of hope for Japanese women's MMA is full of baloney. Barbara is a 24 year old Brazilian. Her record is 4-1 and that loss was via TKO to Karina Rodriguez on July's Invicta show. She's similar to the average Brazilian fighter that PANCRASE would normally bring over to lose to a Japanese fighter. Maybe there is some cost sharing with Invicta. That would be the only benefit I can think of. Why bother having a deal with Invicta if they are going to bring over a fighter who shouldn't have been on an Invicta show in the first place? PANCRASE can do that themselves. A fight like this does nothing to develop women's MMA in PANCRASE. They make this big announcement trumpeting this deal and the first fight under the deal is underwhelming and disappointing. They have to do better.
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