Zelg Galesic

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 PRIDE and K-1
4 DREAM
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Zelg "Benkei" Galesic (born February 16, 1979) is a Croatian professional mixed martial artist training out of Team Trojan.

He stands 6 ft. 2 in. (188 cm) tall and fights in the middleweight division (185 lbs.).

Galesic is a PRIDE veteran and was a semi-finalist in DREAM's 2008 Middleweight Grand Prix. He currently fights as a middleweight for DREAM.

His nickname Benkei is that of a legendary Japanese warrior. Galesic also goes by the nicknames, "Croatian Wonderkid" and "Little Cro Cop".

Early Career

Zelg Galesic made his professional mixed martial arts debut on September 12, 2004 for the Britain based, Ultimate Combat promotion. He defeated his opponent, Jim Bentley, by TKO in just 1:16 of round 1.

Just under seven months later, Galesic lost his first professional bout as this time he found himself the one copping a beating as he was defeated by future UFC competitor, Paul Taylor via TKO in the third round.

After a knockout win over John Fleming in July of 2005, Galesic entered the British, Cage Rage organization. Fighting four times for Cage Rage in 2006, Galesic racked up four first round victories that included an armbar submission win over UFC veteran, Curtis Stout and a 50 second drubbing of another UFC veteran in Mark Weir.

PRIDE and K-1

With an impressive five fight win streak, Galesic made his debut for the PRIDE Fighting Championships on their last ever event, PRIDE 34 in April of 2007. Galesic faced Olympic Judo Gold Medalist, Makoto Takimoto and was submitted with a kimura in the first round.

After the demise of PRIDE, Galesic stayed in Japan as he moved over to K-1's Hero's promotion. In his debut for Hero's, Galesic made it two losses in a row as he was submitted by another decorated Judoka - Dong Sik Yoon - with an armbar in the first round.

In October of 2007, Galesic met Taiel Kin and halted his two fight slide with a cut stoppage victory in just 36 seconds.

DREAM

Hero's made way for Fighting and Entertainment Group's new MMA promotion, DREAM in early 2008. Galesic was brought over from the now defunct Hero's to DREAM and signed on to be one of 16 competitors in DREAM's 2008 Middleweight Grand Prix. At DREAM 2, Galesic met Magomed Sultankhmedov in the opening round of the tournament and showed an improved ground game as he submitted the Russian with an armbar from his back in just 1:40 of round 1.

At the quarter finals stage - held at DREAM 4 - Galesic met Taiel Kin in a rematch from their inconclusive bout in 2007. A definitive victory was not on the cards again as an ill-advised arm posting by Kin while attempting to defend a takedown resulted in a dislocated elbow and the end of the bout.

The unfortunate events at DREAM 4 resulted in Galesic advancing into the semi finals where he met highly decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza at DREAM 6. Souza's advanced grappling was too much for Galesic who was quickly submitted with an armbar at 1:27 of round 1.

Galesic will return to DREAM action at DREAM 10 in July of 2009 when he meats fellow tournament competitor, Andrews Nakahara.