Kazushi Sakuraba’s Quintet promotion, a Japanese group attempting to turn submission grappling into a spectator sport, debuted in the U.S. on Friday at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
The show featured four older MMA legends, Sakuraba, Urijah Faber, Josh Barnett and Frank Mir, but the stars of the show were submission grapplers Gordon Ryan of Team Alpha Male and Craig Jones of Team Polaris.
It was Ryan’s submission of Jones with a rear-naked choke with a body triangle in 3:21 that was the key to Faber’s Team Alpha Male winning the four-team tournament, after they had earlier beaten Team Sakuraba.