Maximo Blanco (born October 16, 1983) is a Venezuelan professional mixed martial artist who last competed in the Featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
A professional competitor since 2008, Blanco is the former Lightweight King of Pancrase and has also competed in Strikeforce and World Victory Road.
Blanco, originally from Venezuela, trained in Tae Kwon Do for three years, reaching the rank of green belt, before being introduced to wrestling at the age of 14 by his cousin.
Blanco faced problems with bullying and fitting into a new society, but continued to excel at wrestling, winning All-Japan honors before being recruited again to compete at Nihon University.
[4] Blanco was also a competitor at the 2007 Pan American Games and came close to winning a Bronze Medal in the 144 lb weight division, he later lost the third place match via points to Peruvian grappler Aldo Parimango.
[7] Blanco faced Daisuke Hanazawa at Pancrase: Shining 10 on December 7, 2008, and was defeated by submission due to an arm-triangle choke in the second round.
Blanco made his debut for Sengoku Raiden Championship at World Victory Road Presents: Sengoku no Ran 2009 on January 4, 2009, and knocked out standout wrestler Seigo Inoue with stomps in 38 seconds, it was later revealed in a SRC press conference that Blanco had broken Seigo's orbital bone with the stomps and Inoue was later forced into a 3-year retirement to rehabilitate his injury.
[12] On March 7, 2010, Blanco knocked out Chang Hyun Kim with a head kick at Sengoku Raiden Championships 12.
[16] On April 11, 2011, Pancrase announced Blanco had vacated his title, due to an inability to defend his belt because of numerous injuries.
[34] However, Bermudez pulled out of the fight in early December citing injury and was replaced by promotional newcomer Luke Sanders.