BUENTELLO BATTLES OVEREEM FOR WORLD TITLE

[keithlewis]

October 23, 2007; San Jose, CA

Heavyweight superstars Paul “The Headhunter” Buentello (23-9) and Alistair “The Demolition Man” Overeem (25-11) will battle to become the first Strikeforce World Heavyweight Mixed Martial Arts Champion in history during the star-studded Strikeforce mega-event at San Jose’s HP Pavilion on Friday, November 16th.

“I just gotta come at him and get in his grill,” said the 33-year-old Buentello, who toppled former K-1 North America champion Carter Williams during Strikeforce’s “Shamrock vs. Baroni” live SHOWTIME PPV card on June 22nd. After a relatively competitive first round, Buentello exploded in the early seconds of the second, sending Williams to the canvas with a pair of right uppercuts. “It’s really the same strategy as I used with Carter Williams. Close the distance and don’t let him hit me from the outside. Then attack on the inside.”

Both seasoned strikers, Buentello and Overeem are expected to produce fireworks in the cage with heavy exchanges of Muay Thai weapons that they have honed at two of the most prized camps in the world - San Jose’s American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) and Holland’s Golden Glory, respectively.

The 27-year-old Overeem’s start will be his second with Strikeforce. On June 9th of last year, he staged a dominant performance against Vitor Belfort, earning a five-round, unanimous decision over the Brazilian knockout artist in the main event of Strikeforce “Revenge” at the HP Pavilion. The victory marked a solid follow-up to Overeem’s conquest of Belfort one year earlier during a Pride Fighting Championship event in Japan.

Amongst his other notable successes in the now defunct Pride organization was Overeem’s submission of Igor Vovchanchyn on June 26, 2005 and his stoppage of Sergei Kharitonov on February 26th of last year.

Buentello’s biography reads like a Cinderella story. A roller coaster ride during the early stages of his career combined with lofty ambitions prompted the self-trained competitor to leave his family behind in Amarillo, Texas in search of world-class combat sports training in California, a martial arts hotbed. In San Jose, he found the support of AKA coaches Javier Mendez and “Crazy” Bob Cook and, with their help, eventually rose to become the number one contender in The UFC.

Buentello suffered a disappointing defeat at the hands of UFC World Heavyweight Champion, Andrei Arlovski, but quickly rebounded and reeled off four straight victories last year, including a 43 second knockout of mixed martial arts legend David “Tank” Abbott, to arrive at his upcoming title shot with Strikeforce.

Presented by BodogFIGHT, Strikeforce “Four Men Enter, One Man Survives” will be headlined by the first-ever sanctioned mixed martial arts tournament in the state of California. Slated to compete in the four-man middleweight (185 lb. limit) playoff are Trevor Prangley (16-4), Falaniko Vitale (24-7), Yuki Sasaki (21-13-1), and Jorge Santiago (14-7). Brackets for the single-elimination event have yet to be determined.

Tickets for the Strikeforce extravaganza are on sale at Ticketmaster (408-998-TIXS) and Ticketmaster online (http://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.