ZTS Tournament Series: Houston – Recap, Video, and Pictures!

May 22, 2011 – The Houston appearance for the Zebra Tournament Series is in the books after a full day of competition yesterday at the beautiful University of Houston Recreation Center.

Teams like Gracie Barra, Revolution Dojo, Elite MMA, Paradigm, Bushi Ban, Bam Bam, and several others represented in a full day of spirited competition.

Some individuals, like blue belt Mitch Norton, even got a chance to take home something extra for their extraordinary efforts.

“I went 5-1 at the Zebra BJJ tournament,” said Norton, who who gold in both the gi and no-gi intermediate division. “It was a great feeling to win and it was the result of a lot of hard work at Elite. I also won a new rash guard and some fight shorts along with a Fuji gi so that made it even better. Definitely thanks for ZTS for the extra rewards. I look forward to seeing more next time!”

Speaking of additional incentives, another unique wrinkle was thrown into the mix for anyone in attendance (for both registered and non-registered BJJ’ers present) when tournament host ZTS of Texas placed a bounty on two of their own sponsored athletes in brown belts in Jason Soliz and Drew Lockwood!

Several people including Marcus “Wrecking Ball” Hicks (black belt referee), Nick Schultz (working the medals table), and several more of the day’s competitors signed up for the bounty matches and a chance to win a $50 cash and a new Fuji gi.

In the end, it was Robert Yamashita of Elite MMA Baytown and Evert Gutierrez of Paradigm who were picked to go after Soliz and Lockwood respectively.

Both ended up being close matches as the ZTS Team went 1-1 with Soliz winning on points (6-4) while Gutierrez, who doubled as a tournament referee, ended up besting Lockwood 3-0 with his fellow refs coaching him throughout the course of the match.

Full team and individual results will be up on www.ztsdealer.com next week.

Pictures

Click here or on the photo below for a slideshow and gallery of ZTS: Houston. Also add me on Facebook for a more comprehensive collection of photos from this tourney to be added shortly!

Videos

Select advanced tournament matches available on the Texas Grappling Channel (Currently sponsored by TXMMA.com and Team Mohler)

About Mike Calimbas

Mike Calimbas is a mainstay within the Texas MMA and Grappling scene and a frequent contributor to TXMMA.com and other publications, online and print, as writer, photographer, and analyst. To contact Mike for any reason, feel free to add him to your network through the Facebook and Twitter links directly below. Also, follow along on Twitter via @TXMMAfeed (#MMA) and @mikecalimbas (everything else)!

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