Originally from Venezuela, Maximo Blanco (8-4-1) was a stand out wrestler in high school and earned himself a scholarship at a Japanese University in Fukuoka spending many of his early years growing up in Japan. Fighting out of the Yoshida Dojo; in 2008 he debuted for Pancrase and went on to become the Lightweight King of Pancrase after brutally knocking out Katsuya Inoue for the belt. In 2009 he gained great exposure worldwide with his fights in top Japanese organisation Sengoku, where fans got to see his brutal style and crushing knock outs, over the likes of Rodridgo Damn, Akihiko Mori, Chang Hyun Kim and Kiuma Kunioku. In 2011 after Sengoku went out of business he signed with Strikeforce and had an exciting back and forth fight with Pat Healy which he sadly lost to a bigger fighter. Realising this Maxi dropped down a weight class to featherweight and was signed by the UFC. Maximo Blanco is a really exciting and crazy fighter to watch. He goes for the finish and has a natural killer instinct inside the cage. I can't wait for him to return to the octagon in 2013.