Joey Villasenor (born October 17, 1975) is a mixed martial arts fighter of Mexican American descent. He is a PRIDE Fighting Championships veteran, as well as the middleweight champion in King of the Cage.
Joey has also fought in Showtime's EliteXC promotion and took part in PRIDE's welterweight grand prix. He currently trains with pro fighters such as Keith Jardine, Rashad Evans, Georges St. Pierre, and Nathan Marquardt at Greg Jackson's Submission Fighting school.
Villasenor made his pro debut in April 1999. After fifteen consecutive wins, he finally made his PRIDE debut on June 4, 2006 against Japanese veteran, Ryo Chonan. Despite losing a decision, Villaseñor was brought back by the organization to fight UFC veteran Robbie Lawler at PRIDE 32. He lost via knockout only 22 seconds into the first round due to a flying knee.
Since then, Villasenor has signed with EliteXC. He defeated former UFC middleweight contender David Loiseau in EliteXC's first event, lost to Murilo Rua at the EliteXC co-promotion Strikeforce Shamrock vs. Baroni, and rebounded with a win over Riki Fukuda at EliteXC: Uprising.
In his most recent fight, Villasenor scored an impressive knock out over Ryan Jensen at Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Le. On May, 31st, at EliteXC's Saturday Night Fights, Villaseñor won his bout against Phil Baroni. This bout can potentially be the elimination match for the EliteXC Middleweight title. It was recently announced that Villasenor would receive a title shot in a rematch against Robbie Lawler on the scheduled November 8, 2008 EliteXC show. However ProElite canceled the show shortly after due to large amounts of debt. It is unknown whether his contract was one of the 42 purchased by Strikeforce in their acquisition of EliteXC assets.







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