Pancrase Style

Last updated: July 12, 2026

What is Pancrase?

Pancrase is one of the oldest mixed martial arts promotions in the world, launched in Tokyo in 1993 by professional wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. Both men came out of Japan’s shoot-style wrestling scene and trained in catch wrestling under Karl Gotch, who suggested naming the promotion after pankration, the striking-and-grappling event of the ancient Greek Olympics.

The word gets used two ways. Most often, it means the organization itself, the company that still runs events in Japan. It also describes the style of fighting that made the early promotion stand apart: a hybrid of grappling and limited striking, contested in a boxing ring under rules borrowed partly from professional wrestling. Fighters wore boots and shin pads, hit the head with open palms rather than closed fists, and could wriggle out of submissions by grabbing the ropes.

Pancrase held its first event on September 21, 1993, roughly two months before UFC 1. That head start is why the promotion sits among the small group of organizations that shaped what MMA would eventually become.

How the Pancrase style worked

The early Pancrase ruleset looked odd next to a modern cage fight, yet every rule traced back to the catch wrestling philosophy of its founders. Bouts took place in a squared ring. Competitors fought with bare hands and no gloves, and closed-fist punches to the head were banned outright. A striker could hit the head only with an open palm, saving closed fists for the body.

The signature element was the rope escape. A fighter trapped in a submission could reach the ropes to force a break and a restart on the feet. That relief came at a price. Each escape cost a point, and a fighter was allotted a fixed number, usually five, for the entire match. Use them all, and the fight was gone.

This one rule bent the whole sport around it. A pure grappler could not just lock up a dominant position and stall, while a striker with no submission defense hemorrhaged points. You had to be a threat both standing and on the mat. Pancrase rewarded well-rounded fighters years before the rest of the sport accepted that being one-dimensional was a fatal flaw. Elbows to the head were off limits, and so were knees or kicks to a grounded opponent’s head.

Pancrase vs modern MMA

Watch a 1994 Pancrase card and a current UFC event back to back, and you would struggle to accept that they are the same sport. The table below shows where the original Pancrase style parted ways with the unified rules that govern most MMA today.

Element	Early Pancrase (1990s)	Modern MMA (unified rules)
Strikes to the head	Open palm only	Closed-fist punches and elbows
Hand protection	Bare hands, no gloves	Small open-finger gloves
Escaping submissions	Rope escapes, limited and point-costing	None; tap or defend
Competition area	Boxing ring with ropes	Cage or octagon
Attire	Boots, shin pads, trunks	Shorts, bare feet
Match format	One long round of 15 or 30 minutes	Three or five rounds of 5 minutes

By 2016, Pancrase had adopted the unified rules itself, so those contrasts describe its past rather than the promotion you would watch now.

What the King of Pancrase title means

Pancrase does not crown champions. It crowns kings. From day one, the promotion called its title the King of Pancrase, a flourish carried over from the theatrical side of Japanese wrestling that simply stuck.

The first holder was Ken Shamrock, who won the 1994 openweight tournament and then took his catch wrestling into the earliest UFC events. Bas Rutten, a Dutch kickboxer who showed up with almost no ground game, taught himself to grapple inside the promotion and went on to win the title three times. Co-founder Masakatsu Funaki held it as well, and fighters such as Frank Shamrock, Guy Mezger, and Josh Barnett passed through the same roster. For much of the 1990s, that belt sat close to the center of serious mixed martial arts.

Common misconceptions about Pancrase

Were the fights fake? The question trails Pancrase because of its pro wrestling roots and its boots-and-ropes look. The promotion always insisted its bouts were shoots, meaning real and unscripted rather than scripted performances. That claim mostly holds up. Guy Mezger, who competed there, later said only a handful of worked matches ever happened, nearly all of them before his own run began. Some early bouts did look closer to hard gym sparring than a title fight, yet the results were real.

The second mix-up is the name. Pancrase is not pankration. Pankration was the ancient Greek Olympic event; Pancrase is the modern Japanese promotion that borrowed the word. They share one idea, blending striking with grappling, and little else.

A third assumption is that Pancrase died out years ago. It did not. The company still runs regular events in Japan under standard MMA rules and streams on UFC Fight Pass, often sending Japanese prospects up toward the UFC.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Pancrase still around?

Yes. Pancrase continues to hold MMA events in Japan under the unified rules and streams internationally on UFC Fight Pass.

What does the name Pancrase mean?

It comes from pankration, the ancient Greek Olympic sport that combined boxing and wrestling. Karl Gotch suggested the name to the founders.

Who founded Pancrase?

Japanese pro wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki founded Pancrase in 1993, alongside Takaku Fuke, building it on their catch wrestling background.

What were rope escapes?

A fighter caught in a submission could grab the ropes to break the hold and restart standing. Each escape cost a point, and each fighter had only a few.

Did Pancrase come before the UFC?

Globally, yes. Pancrase held its first event on September 21, 1993, about two months before UFC 1 on November 12, 1993.

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Sources

1. Wikipedia. “Pancrase.” Accessed July 2026.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancrase
2. Combatpit. “Pancrase: The Japanese Promotion That Proved Real Fighting Could Work.” Accessed July 2026.
   https://www.combatpit.com/blog/pancrase-mma-history
3. Jits Magazine. “Throwback: How Pancrase Changed MMA History.” Accessed July 2026.
   https://jitsmagazine.com/throwback-how-pancrase-changed-mma-history/
4. TheSportster. “10 Things Fans Should Know About The MMA Promotion Pancrase.” Accessed July 2026.
   https://www.thesportster.com/facts-things-mma-promotion-pancrase/
5. Bleacher Report. “Pancrase: An Odd Piece of MMA History.” Accessed July 2026.
   https://bleacherreport.com/articles/358856-pancrase-an-odd-peice-of-mma-history
6. Pancrase Official Site. “Rules.” Accessed July 2026.
   https://www.pancrase.co.jp/en/rules/index.html

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