Joe Pearson (fighter)


Joe Pearson is an American mixed martial artist who has fought in PRIDE, WEC and Shooto. Except for his first professional bout, no fight in Pearson's career has gone to decision.
Pearson also holds the record for most triangle chokes in mixed martial arts history, successfully utilizing the submission twenty-four times in his career.

Biography

Early MMA career

Pearson started his MMA career at 2002, fighting for several organizations in the midwest of United States. He made a 7-1-1 record and then came to Japan to fight for Shooto against Hatsu Hioki. Pearson lost the bout via submission. After this, he had an unstable sequence of fights, until the second half of 2006 when he won six straight bouts and was called to fight for Pride.

Pride FC and WEC Featherweight Championship

In Pride Bushido 13 he faced the Pancrase and DEEP veteran Yoshiro Maeda. He won the bout via submission in the very first round. In early 2007 he gained an opportunity to fight against the WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber. However, he lost via submission in the first round.

MSMMA and CFC titles

After his bout in WEC he came back to his home region and became the Mainstream MMA and CFC Champion. In 2008 he lost his Mainstream MMA Championship to Erik Koch.
Pearson was expected to face Jeff Curran on May 13, 2011 at XFO 39, but had to withdraw due to a car accident.

Pancrase

Pearson faced 2009 Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix Champion Masanori Kanehara on September 29, 2013 at Pancrase 252 in the Pancrase World Grand Slam opening round. He lost via knockout early in the first round.

Other promotions

Pearson faced Brady Harrison at XFS - Unstoppable on February 8, 2014. He lost via first round TKO. Pearson then snapped his three fight losing streak on May 19, 2014, defeating Nic Cox via triangle choke at Extreme Challenge 231.

Championships and accomplishments

Mixed martial arts