WVR Champ Santiago to Fight at Sengoku 11

Jorge Santiago (21-7 MMA, 1-2 UFC, #5 IWMMAR) has been on fire the last few years. Since leaving the UFC after an unimpressive stint, he’s strung together nine wins, finishing all of his fights and beating out solid opposition including UFC veterans Jeremy Horn, Andrei Semenov, Trevor Prangley and Kazuhiro Nakamura. Back in January, Santiago beat Kazuo Misaki to become the first World Victory Road middleweight champion, and Santiago will return to the ring on November 7th. While the even will certainly be overshadowed in the western hemisphere by Fedor vs. Rogers, it should be a solid event in a great weekend of MMA.

Santiago will be fighting up-and-coming, but incredibly accomplished warrior Mamed Khalidov (19-3-1 MMA). Khalidov’s streak, from a numbers standpoint, is a little more impressive. He’s 16-0-1 since October of 2005 and has been fighting consistently the whole time. Among those 16 wins is one decision (and, of course, the draw). Still, Khalidov hasn’t fought any really serious competition, though he beat TUF dropout Jason Guida in ShoXC not to long ago. It will be interesting to see Khalidov tested against a serious warrior in Santiago.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Kevin Randleman (17-13 MMA, 4-3 UFC) will also be fighting on the card, facing off against undefeated Bulgarian Stanislav Nedkov (7-0 MMA). Nedkov had an impressive MMA debut, defeating veteran Travis Wiuff at Sengoku 8, and though Nedkov is a relative unknown, he may be a favorite against Randleman, who is (at best) a shadow of his former self.

Still unannounced for the event is world Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion Xande Ribeiro (2-0 MMA), who walked away from the Abu Dhabi Combat Club back in September with a gold medal in the -99 kg weight class and a silver medal in Absolute. Ribeiro is featured on the promotional artwork for the event and hasn’t been out of action that long, having beaten Keiichiro Yamamiya back in May. Ribeiro, who has yet to submit an opponent in MMA, is one of the best athletes submission grappling has to offer, and seems to be taking MMA pretty seriously.