KASAI Pro returns to the Empire State in style on Saturday, August 18 for another event of professional no-gi grappling. 

The venue has been announced as the Manhattan Center’s Hammerstein Ballroom in the heart of New York City.

KASAI Pro 3 will feature an one-night tourney at 170lbs (77.1kg) to crown the first-ever KASAI World Welterweight Champion. 

Past KASAI events featured tournaments at 155lb and 185lb (won by Renato Canuto and Matheus Diniz respectively) as well as superfights between Gordon Ryan and Yuri Simoes, and Geo Martinez and Nicky Ryan. 

“Bringing ‘KASAI Pro 3’ to Manhattan Center is a major achievement for our company and reflects our remarkable growth in the past 12 months,” said Rich Byrne, KASAI CEO. 

“The incredible atmosphere inside this venue, combined with our most stacked card yet, should make for a memorable night of action on August 18.”

A 185lb match from KASAI Pro 2 in April, 2018. 

Built in 1906, the former opera house has become one of New York’s renowned performance venues showcasing musical acts such as Bob Marley and David Bowie, as well as the debut episode of ‘WWF Monday Night Raw,’ and tapings of NBC hit show ‘America's Got Talent’.

Among the eight contenders vying for gold will be the winner of KASAI’s no-gi qualifying tournament on Saturday, June 16, at ‘The Elite Grappling Championships’, a day-long amateur competition hosted at York College in Queens, New York. 

Tournament grapplers at ‘KASAI Pro 3’ will compete in six-minute bouts across two round-robin brackets. The winners of each bracket will advance to a main event championship match. 

All tournament matches will use KASAI Pro rules, no advantages are awarded, and all submissions are legal.

Tickets for ‘KASAI Pro 3’ go on sale soon. Watch it live or on demand only on FloGrappling. Keep checking FloGrappling for more announcements.

Watch KASAI Pro 2 highlight