Wow! WOW! Where to begin? I’m hardly recovered. What a night! So let’s just start at the beginning…

X Fight took place last night in downtown Granada, Spain in the beautiful bar Discoteca 10 just next to the historical Granada cathedral. The event featured one Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fight, two full-contact fights, and four Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights — three of which featured Gracie-Barra Marbella Team Edson Jorge fighters making their MMA debut! So how did go? Well, in short, the team remains undefeated!.

Capoeira Guara!

The first fight of the night featured our newest import, Brazilian capoeira instructor “Guara” (Don’t ask. If he told you his real name, he’d have to kill you) facing off against Victor De Niro. The weeks before the fight, Guara was telling me that he really didn’t know much Jiu Jitsu, and planned to keep the fight standing up. Well, that didn’t go according to plan, and within the first minute, the fighters hit the deck. But surprise surprise, Guara must be a secret black belt or something, because in a flash he had De Niro mounted and was raining down punches causing a quick submission for the first GB Marbella win of the night.

Even more impressive than the fight was the double-back-over triple spin summersault thing he did after being announced the winner!

Paleta Power!

The next fight of the evening was a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu challenge match between our very own purple belt Pablo “Paleta” Cabo against the ever tough Ali Dinar of Granada. The fight started fast and furious with Pablo getting the first takedown. For 10 minutes, Pablo demonstrated why he’s one of Spain’s top BJJ talents as he passed Dinar’s half guard to side-control and north-south, back up, and back down again. Dinar put up a great effort, but Pablo fully controlled the fight, earning the judges’ unanimous decision for the win. It was a great win for Paleta and we look forward to continue seeing him dominate the BJJ competition scene this year.

Leo, The Argentinean Sensation, Galati!

In the second MMA fight of the night, our very own Leo Galati, put on a show! Seeing the fight, you’d never guess this was his MMA debut, as he demonstrated the cool control of a seasoned MMA professional. I’m not sure anybody has prepared harder for their fight than Leo. Seeing the transformation he has made over he past few months through hard work and training, going from slightly overweight to ripped, lean and mean athlete, has been, for me, inspirational. When Leo entered the ring last night, you could see on his face that his opponent had little chance.

As the fight began, Leo and his opponent, Urtzi “Wanderlayla” Bilbao, circle a bit, feeling each other out and judging the distance. After a quick kick exchange, the fighter’s clinched and Leo worked a spectacular take-down. Leo quickly gained side control, and then the mount, where he was perfectly position for some top end ground and pound. After about 30 seconds, Bilbao couldn’t take any more pounding, and called for the submission, giving Leo his first in what will likely be a long stream of MMA wins!

Mike “The Shark” Rios!

Marbella Submission Fighter Co-Founder, Used Car Salesman, Maker of Fine Kimonos, Publisher of Glamour Magazines, and now… Ultimate Fighting Warrior!!!, Mike “She Knew from Day One I Was a Surfer” Rios, has truly become an Urban Legend.

I can’t begin to tell you how worried I was warming up with Mike for his fight. I could tell he was nervous, and knew that having waited around all day and all night for his fight could take its toll. Then, entering the ring and seeing Mike’s tough, pit-bull-looking Brazilian opponent Bethoven de Castro, I almost threw in the towel before the fight started. (I had a ring-side view, as I was working the corner in Mike’s fight with Edson, and my job, as always, was the single task of periodically screaming, “Breathe!”)

When the bell rang to start the fight, Mike and Pit Bull circled for a moment, until the Brazilian charged in to attempt a take-down. Mike did a good job with the sprawl, but managed to get hit squarely one time during De Castro’s barrage of initial punches. Mike then got under the Brazilian’s leg for a reversal take down, and the momentum of the fight changed. The fighters ended up on their feet again with the Brazilian behind Mike. Mike, a purple belt in Jiu Jitsu, took his opponents left arm and jumped down for a kimura, but the Brazilian escaped, but in the process Mike ended up in full back mount. Man oh man was the tide turning in the fight!

Round one ended squarely in Mike’s favor. Between the rounds though, I got concerned seeing how tired he was. But he’s got the heart of a warrior and stood up to face the pit-bull for round 2.

Round two started with Mike landing some solid jabs. Da Castro, starting to wear down, tried again to shoot, but Mike’s wrestling skills were just too much. Mike managed to reverse his opponent again, throwing him to the mat, and into position to attempt a foot lock. Several audible cracks came from his foot, but the tenacious Brazilian wasn’t about to tap. The two fighter rolled, and Mike ended up in his opponent’s guard, where for the remainder of the fight, he scored ground and pound punches to the face of Da Castro.

The bell rang, and Mike “El Tiburón” Rios has his first MMA victory.

Hopefully I’ll get the videos of the other fights soon. My little digital camera only had enough time in memory to record Mike’s fight, so here it is for download:

VIDEO: Mike Rios - X Fight (38 MB)

Edson “Sururu” Jorge, Fighter and Coach Extrodinaire!

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Submission Wrestling, and now MMA champions. It’s quite amazing what Edson “Sururu” Jorge has done since arriving in Marbella and establishing his Gracie-Barra academy! If you’re looking to train BJJ, grappling or MMA in Spain, you’ve got a wonderful opportunity in beautiful Marbella to train under one of the top professionals in world.

Congratulations to all the fighters, and a big thanks to Luis Zarate for putting on a great show, and to our friends Pablo Espejo (promoter of KO Arena), Luis Quiñones (undefeated MMA fighter), and Rodrigo (BJJ pioneer) for the excellent jobs they did refereeing and judging the event.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 10:21 am and is filed under Events, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.