Joey Villaseñor: An Ugly Situation

Really Ugly. This guy makes Hong Man Choi look like Fabio. I mean if there were ever to be a new word invented to describe ugliness it would probably be Villaseñor.

Could it be that this is truly one case where a fighters appearance has held him to lower, lesser organizations than the UFC? Well maybe not, there have been a lot of really ugly people in the fight game, but does anyone have any other ideas?

He has never been offered a UFC contract. He went on a 15 win streak and was Middleweight Champion of KOTC for a long time, still no UFC contract.

He did fight for Pride twice, losing both times. Once to Ryo Chonan and in the other he was KO’d in 22 seconds when Robbie Lawler hit him with a knee.

Most recently Joey had been fighting for the now defunct EliteXC organization. I don’t see any reason why his fights would have been influenced by the EliteXC management, so he should be credited with a three fight win streak, four of five overall. His last win was a TKO of Phil Baroni on May 31, 2008

Other notable victories for Joey include wins over Riki Fukuda and Jorge Santiago. This writer happened to see Joey fight live at KOTC: Prime Time back in 2005 when he defeated Santiago in a spirited contest. He is an underrated fighter.

With a current record of 26-6 against relatively decent competition and a three fight win streak, one would think this fighter would be given a shot in the UFC but he hasn’t. Why?

Seriously, as repulsive as he may be, there must be another excuse for it. Once again the question remains...anyone have any ideas?

Fortunately for Joey, Villaseñor recently verified that he will be fighting Evangelista Santos June 19 on the Showtime event ShoMMA.

Still, while fighting for Strikeforce is nothing to shirk at, he will eventually vanish unless he manages a multi-fight deal with the UFC or perhaps DREAM.

It would also help if he won more of his really pivotal fights. He had two shots in Pride and lost both. Before his loss to Ryo Chonan via Split decision, he had won 15 in a row. Nineteen in a row if you call his one loss, due to an injury, a no contest.

Joey has gone 4-1 in his last five fights which include wins over Phil Baroni and David Loiseau. Perhaps he’s starting to put it all together.

In an event, should Villaseñor continue to win He should eventually get a shot at the UFC.

Currently Villaseñor is fighting out of Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting School, which has produced quite a number of good MMA competitors.

Should he win his Strikeforce bouts and still not get a shot in the UFC, It would be a very Ugly thing indeed.