PRANGLEY, SANTIAGO, SASAKI COMPLETE FIRST CALIFORNIA MMA TOURNAMENT DRAW
October 21, 2007; San Jose, CA - Wrestling powerhouse Trevor Prangley (16-4) along with rising star Jorge Santiago (14-7) and seasoned road warrior Yuki Sasaki (21-13-1) will join Falaniko “Niko” Vitale (24-7) in the four-man, single-elimination middleweight (185 lb. limit) mixed martial arts tournament that will headline Strikeforce’s return to the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California on Friday, November 16th.
Each bout in the first-ever sanctioned mixed martial arts tournament in California, which will be completed over the course of the 10 bout fight card, will consist of two, two-minute rounds. If a draw is declared following the second round of a matchup, an overtime round will be added to the bout to determine a victor.
Prangley, a former national wrestling champion in his native South Africa, has matured into one of the most feared competitors in the sport’s 185 pound weight class. The 35-year-old will put a five fight win streak on the line during the tournament affair. His last victory, a second round stoppage of Japan’s Yuki Kondo, took place on July 14th.
Twelve years ago, Prangley, an Olympic wrestling hopeful, left his birthplace in search of superior training in The United States. After settling in Couer D’ Alene, Idaho, he secured a wrestling scholarship with North Idaho College (NIC) and went on to earn All-American honors both years he spent at the two-year institution.
Following his second year at NIC, Prangley discovered and fell in love with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and, soon after, redirected his ambitions towards establishing himself in the sport of mixed martial arts. Six consecutive victories highlighted the start of his professional career, beginning with a debut conquest of Joe Garcia by way of knee bar on January 18, 2001. Prangley has since attached himself to one of the sport’s most fearsome fighter breeding grounds, American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), in San Jose.
Dangerously quick on his feet as well as on the canvas, the 26-year-old Santiago notched his single best conquest to date during his last effort, a meeting with superstar Jeremy Horn, in Dallas, Texas on September 1st. With two minutes remaining in the opening round of action, Santiago, after catching his far more experienced opponent several times with quick hands, forced Horn to tap out from a triangle choke.
Five months prior to his showdown with Horn, Santiago used his tremendous flexibility and agility to escape a brutal ground and pound offensive and, soon after, an arm bar attempt by battle-tested Andrei Semenov, before turning the tides on the Russian Red Devil team member in the second round of their matchup and stopping Semenov with a hard right hand-right uppercut combination.
A native of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Santiago, who holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, has found a new home at the American Top Team in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Sasaki, a 31-year-old submissions expert, has tasted success with nearly every major mixed martial arts fight organization in his homeland. Since he set out to become a force in the sport at the young age of 19, the former Karate player has traded blows with a host of elite competitors and triumphed over several big names including Ronald Jhun and Alex Stiebling.
The Japanese competitor made his debut in The United States before a national Spike TV audience on August 7th of last year. Matched with fellow grappling wizard, Dean Lister, during UFC “Fight Night 6,” Sasaki escaped a deep triangle choke in the second round of action and exhausted the American fighter to the extent that Lister was unable to keep his hands up. After the close of the third round, however, Lister was proclaimed the winner.
On July 26th, Sasaki, in his first appearance since the loss to Lister, returned to the win column with a quick, first round arm bar submission of Bo Guk So in Tokyo.
The winner of the four-man tournament playoff will potentially be awarded the opportunity to challenge Strikeforce World Middleweight Champion, Frank Shamrock.
Tickets for the Strikeforce event, which will be presented by BodogFIGHT, are on sale at Ticketmaster (408-998-TIXS) and Ticketmaster online (
www.ticketmaster.com) as well as at the HP Pavilion box office (408-287-7070). Ticket prices range from $30 to $300.
HP Pavilion doors will open for Strikeforce “Four Men Enter, One Man Survives” at 5:30 PM PST on Friday, November 16th. The first preliminary bout will begin at 6 PM and the first tournament bout will commence at 7:30 PM.
About Strikeforce
Strikeforce is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, Strikeforce has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” Since then, it has produced the first SHOWTIME PPV mixed martial arts event in history with its world championship “Shamrock vs. Baroni” card on June 22nd of this year followed by the first-ever mixed martial arts event at the world-famous Playboy Mansion on September 29th.
