Marcelinho puts on show and Kron has debut victory
In the battle of the stars, the result was a draw for Ronaldo Jacaré and Randy Couture. “But Jaca was the moral champion”, said Saulo Ribeiro, one of the referees at the event X-Mission, the submission grappling event that took place in California. "Both were quite similar, Couture didn't attach from the top. Now Jacaré almost got him with different moves, almost got the kimura, almost got the leg lock and almost got the foot lock. He just needed to adjust the hold, it was close”, Saulo commented. After the two-round fight and one lively 2-minute overtime, Couture thanked all the fans. “And specially Jacaré, for giving me the chance to compete against him, it was a pleasure", said the wrestler ex-champion of the heavy and middleweight division in the UFC.

In the penultimate and best fight of the event, it Bruce Buffer announced the fight on the microphone and, four minutes later, Marcelo Garcia did his part: after pulling guard, reversing and taking Jake Shields down with a single-leg takedown, Marcelinho submitted Cesar Gracie's student with a frontal choke with only a few seconds left in the four-minute round.

Helped by dynamic rules, the brand new X-Mission also promoted Kron Gracie’s debut without the gi. Rickson’s son didn’t give the Taiwanese fighter fighting out of Califórnia Andy Wang a chance and beat his adversary by a score of 4 to 0, one point from a takedown and three from a dangerous submission attempt, after Kron attempted a leg bar followed by a foot lock.

“It was my first time, so it was okay. I didn’t train much without the gi, but of course, I wil train and compete a lot more from now on. I had him locked, the submission was close”, Kron commented after the two rounds.

There were delays for pomp – including a minute of silence for soldiers dead in combat – X-Mission started at around 8pm, in Culver City, in the area surrounding Los Angeles. Check out the results:

X-Mission
Culver City Veterans Memorial, Culver City, Califórnia
17 de novembro de 2006

Randy Couture and Ronaldo Jacaré tied after 3R
Marcelo Garcia submitted Jake Shields by choke (after scoring 1 to 0)
Vladimir Matyushenko defeats Vinicius Pezão by 1 to 0 (takedown)
Alberto Crane submitted Joe Camacho by armbar (after scoring 5 to 0)
Kron Gracie defeated Andy Wang by 4 to 0
Rafael Lovato Jr. defeated Robert Tussa Camargo by 7 to 0
Jeff Glover defeated Shane Rice by 3 to 0
Mac Danzig submitted Allen Zborovsky by choke at 69sec of 1R


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