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RYUKI UEYAMA: Japanese amateur wrestler, 2002 DEEP Japan Middleweight Champion, RINGS veteran, Pancrase veteran, The Contenders veteran, Team Kingdom wrestler, UWF International wrestler, All Japan pro wrestler, trains with Ryo Chonan, Kazuki Okubo, Kiyoshi Tamura and the rest of U-File Camp, with a record of 9-6-4 in MMA, making his 1st appearance in the ring of the PFC
Abbreviated Fight History: Fighting out of Kiyoshi Tamura's U-File Camp, Ueyama has an extensive professional wrestling background and even goes back to the UWFi and Team Kingdom days with Kazushi Sakuraba, Hiromitsu Kanehara, Nobuhiko Takada and Daijiro Matsui. With the demise of RINGS, Ueyama made his permanent home with the DEEP promotion and carries a 5-1-3 record in that event. Below are some of Ueyama's more significant contests:

Ueyama/Dave Menne: Menne lands a couple hard punches to the face and takes Ueyama down, working from half mount. They were stood up and remained standing for a long period of time. Menne tried to finish it with strikes but he eventually got Ueyama's back and worked for the rear choke. Ueyama escapes and takes Menne's back but Dave is able to roll to his back. There wasn't a whole lot of action in this bout until Menne was given a yellow card for punching Ueyama in the face on the ground. Both fighters exhibited solid ground skills but the pace and feel of the bout was sluggish. Despite Menne's contact lense issue, round two also staggered out of the gate. Arm punches and wrestling was all we saw. Menne might've pulled out the round if it had not been for the foul earlier but it ended up a draw.

Ueyama/LaVerne Clark: Clark, with big Tim Sylvia in his corner, comes out very cautiously. They circle and finally engage with Clark landing hooks and uppercuts to the body. They tumble to the mat and LaVerne immediately takes Ryuki's back. Ueyama works for an armlock and Clark cannot free himself for several minutes. Once free, he unloads hooks to the body from behind. Ueyama rolls for a leg submission but is blocked and forced to absorb more punishment. Clark gets his hooks in and works for the rear choke. He cannot sink it and Ueyama rolls him to the canvas and obtains side control. Clark sprawls back to his feet but eats two knees to the body and answers with an uppercut. Again they circle but Clark just seems to want to trade punches. Ueyama lands a high kick to the side of the head that is partially blocked and they trade on the feet. In a bizarre occurrence, Clark experiences a flash KO from a head butt and the bout is temporarily stopped. When the bout resumed, Ueyama was intent on bringing it to the mat. Once down, Ueyama worked to mount and failed on an attempted armbar just before the bell. Clark apparently had not recovered from the head butt as he was unable to come out for the second round. Ueyama wins by TKO

Ueyama/Hayato Sakurai: Sakurai throws a high roundhouse kick that was partially blocked to open up hi offense. He follows with what looks to be a reverse hook kick but Ueyama jams it and shoots in for the takedown attempt. Hayato sprawls and delivers knees to the head to fend off the takedown and they go back to standing. Sakurai looks like he wants to trade and he pops Ueyama with a short left hook. Again Ryuki sprawls and is met with jumping knees to the head. The ref breaks the action because it seems leaving the ground was illegal and Hayato is assessed a yellow card foul. After some time to recover, an angered Ueyama opens up with knees to the face but Sakurai welcomes the interaction. Ueyama succeeds with a poorly designed single leg takedown and sits in Sakurai's "TK guard" landing punches to the face. Sakurai keeps him at bay and begins to land numerous punches to Ueyama's face. Ryuki can no longer control Hayato and he's getting tagged left and right. Sakurai eventually works in a triangle and it is tight. It looks bad as Ueyama falls to his side but he will not tap and the round ends.

Ueyama shoots and Sakurai sprawls to open the second round. Ryuki scores a single leg and Sakurai puts him in full guard and controls the action from the floor. Sakurai elevates Ueyama but is nearly mounted and settles for a leg lock. The two opt to slug it out while still leg locked. Ueyama scrambles and tries yet another takedown but Sakurai avoids it and pounds away at will on Ryuki's head. A takedown by Sakurai lands him in half mount to end the round. The crowd is behind Sakurai to start round three and he answers their call with a short punch and roundhouse kick to the head that both connect. Ueyama catches a knee to the head and immediately shoots to no avail. Sakurai's feeling confident but misses with a spinning backfist and finally falls prey to a Ueyama takedown. They fight with Ueyama in half mount but the pace is slow and they are stood up. Again we see the familiar sight of Ueyama failing to bring Sakurai down and Hayato kneeing him in the head as punishment. One very hard knee seems to stun Ueyama as Sakurai needs just one hand to keep Ryuki's head down. With just a minute left, both fighters appear drained when stood up but Sakurai takes the opening to perform a wheel kick and cracks Ueyama in the base of the spine. Hayato rolls to his back and is punching from guard as the final bell sounds. Sakurai wins a unanimous decision

Also worthy of note: Ueyama battled Sokun Koh (loss/TKO) Kiuma Kunioku (loss/decision) and Kousei Kubota (draw, draw)

Strengths And Weaknesses: Ueyama fights with a lot of heart. He gets beaten down and keeps coming. He has really improved his ground game since 2002 and won the DEEP 5 tournament winning 2 of his 3 bouts by submission. As for weaknesses, his takedowns have no explosion to them and he is easily jammed or reversed. Standing, he can trade but doesn't appear to be great at any one thing.

How He Can Beat Sherk: By decision. He's nearly 6 foot and Sherk is 5'6 so he will have a definite height and reach advantage. If he puts forth a solid effort, he may be able to pull out a win against the American.

SEAN SHERK: American wrestler, 10-time Minnesota State Wrestling Champion, 2-time National Wrestling Champion, member of Minnesota All Star Wrestling Team, UFC veteran (3-1), King of the Cage veteran, Extreme Challenge veteran, Pancrase veteran, UCC veteran, Ultimate Wrestling veteran, trains out of the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy with Ed Markey, Greg Nelson Tim Callahan and Brad Kohler and has trained with Dave Menne, with a record of 25-1-1 in MMA, making his 1st appearance in the ring of the PFC

Abbreviated Fight History: Minnesota native Sean Sherk trains out of the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy with Ed Markey, Greg Nelson and the former UFC Middleweight Champion Dave Menne. The motto at MMAA is "The strength of the Wolf is in the Pack, and the strength of the Pack is in the Wolf" so training as a team and facing challenges as a team is a high priority in this camp. They practice Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and even Jeet Kune Do and kali there but Sherk is all about wrestling. He began wrestling at 7 years old and placed in both State and National tournaments as a member of the Minnesota All Star team. He began studying judo but moved on to MMAA where he began competing in amateur shoot wrestling. Sean has established himself as a true force in the sport wielding a 22-0-1 professional record over the last 5 years. Below are some of Sherk's more significant contests

Sherk/Karo Parisyan: Karo fought Sean Sherk twice (the only pro fighter to do so) at the Reality Submission Fighting events in '00 and '01. Combined the two fought for more than half and hour with Parisyan losing both bouts. The first bout was by decision and the second on a TKO stoppage.

Sherk/Martin Armendarez: Sherk immediately took Armendarez down and pounded him against the fence. A cut opens on the back of Martin's head and Sean continues to pound him while staying out of any submission danger. Sherk keeps him pinned him against the fence and they never leave the guard of Armendarez for the entire first round. Martin is able to sprawl out of the initial takedown attempt by Sean but the wrestler will not give up and eventually puts Armendarez back on the canvas. It was more of the same but late in the round Sean landed some deadly elbows to the side of Martin's head. Armendarez gets back to his feet twice in the last 3 minutes but it doesn't change anything as Sherk finishes the round in top pounding his face. Sherk gets another takedown to start the third round and the punches get more explosive. With two minutes gone in the third, Larry Landless has seen enough and awards Sherk the TKO victory.

Sherk/Benji Radach: At UFC 39 Sean battled Benji "The Razor" Radich in a battle of opposing styles. Radich was able to tag Sherk on a number of occasions but the big slams and strikes from Sean were too much. Late in round one a cut was opened and the bout was stopped, bringing Sherk's UFC record to 3-0.

Sherk/Matt Hughes: It was a fight people had wanted to see for at least a year. Two fighters so evenly matched up physically and stylistically. Both have excellent take down abilities and punishing ground'n'pound skills. Hughes dominated the first two rounds with good takedowns, positioning and opened a big cut over Sherk's right eye. It was taken care of in the corner and the bout continued. Sherk got two takedowns in round 3 and was able to land some strikes on the feet, some of which opened a cut over Hughes right eye. Again, it was nothing serious, and the bout continued. The fourth bout was dominated by Hughes again, throwing sharp elbows from the mat. And in the final round, Sherk got a takedown but the fight was out of his hands at that point. Not only did Sean lose the decision but as a slap in the face, Zuffa terminated his contract.

Also worthy of note: Sherk battled Steve Gomm (win/decision), Tiki Ghosen (win/submission), Kiuma Kunioku (draw) Jutaro Nakao (win/decision) and Claudionor Fontinelle (win/submission)

Strengths And Weaknesses: Sherk's wrestling is on par with the best in the sport. Only Matt Hughes' ability rivals Sherk's pure grappling skills in this weight division.

How He Can Beat Ueyama: Good old fashioned G'n'P. Sherk is one of the best at bringing his opponent to the mat and keeping him there.

MY PICK: Sherk. Few people can hang on the mat with Sherk. He is the consummate Ground'n'Pound fighter and does not lose. Well, once, but not often. Ueuyama doesn't mind being on the mat as a wrestler but given his previous competition, he likely isn't used to heavy hitters like Sherk making dents in his head. This could be Sean's ticket to security. If he can get the win here, he will face solid names in Pride and could become the next Mark Kerr (not the drugs and other stuff, just terms of popularity with the Japanese audience). I feel it will be Sherk with strikes on the mat in the 2nd Rd.

DOWN THE ROAD:
Sherk/Frank Trigg: This one has to happen. Wrestler vs. wrestler. Who has the better striking game?

Sherk/Hayato Sakurai: Seems like another natural match-up in this weight division. Now that they are both in Pride, it is real possibility in the near future.

Ueyama/Romie Aram: Aram has been quiet since the loss to Strasser in the UFC but he is ready to come back to the ring.

Ueyama/Gil Castillo: Castillo is another fighter left behind by the UFC and needs a victory to recover from the "Charuto" beating.