ONTARIO, Calif., June 17 — Longtime mixed martial arts fighter, trainer, and promoter Eddie Millis, head of the Shark Tank, promoted his inaugural “Invincible” show Saturday.

In the headline fight, Gilvanildo Santana, fighting out of No Limits and coached by Colin Oyama, faced undefeated Maverick Harvey (Pictures), an underground hero known as “The Soul Collector” and boasting a legion of fans.

While the muscular Harvey came out looking to bang at the opening bell, Santana, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu star that won the 2005 ADCC qualifying tournament in Brazil, kept him at bay with several hard leg kicks. The instant Harvey backed away to gather himself, Santana charged in, clinched, and then took the fight to the ground against the fence in side control.

Quickly moving to top head mount, Santana caught Harvey’s arms and began working for a Kimura. When the extremely strong Harvey fought it off and tried to stand, Santana straightened out and switched to a straight armbar. Showing incredible courage, Harvey still refused to tap and continued to fight off the ferocious lock until his arm popped, tearing his biceps muscle and forcing the referee to jump in, giving Santana the TKO win.

This was a great win for Santana and it showed what happens when a world-class BJJ star is coached by a world-class Muay Thai trainer like Oyama. With this impressive showing expect to see Santana headline more shows in the future. As for Harvey, his show of courage and his refusal to quit in a losing cause will only serve to expand the reputation of the “Soul Collector.”

Undefeated Don Rocco met Lion’s Den fighter Dan Molina (Pictures) in a match that was put together just three days prior to the show due to some last-minute fighter cancellations. The way that these two fought, however, you’d think that they’d been training for months.

Rocco came out trying to punch but was taken down by Molina. Rocco wasted little time on the ground, however, as he reversed positions and got to side-control where he was held in successfully by Molina who negated Rocco’s punching and submission attempts.

Rocco again got top control in the second, spending all of the three-minute round on top, looking for punches and submissions but again was foiled by Molina’s tough defense.

Rocco took a superior ground position to start the third, going to side-control and this time landing several sharp ground flurries on Molina in the middle portions of the round. With 30 seconds to go in the fight Molina finally came alive as he reversed Rocco and pressured him from on top punches. It was too little too late, however, as Rocco posted an impressive split decision win over a tough Molina in a very entertaining match.

Robert Sanchez defeated Jason Childress via a strong showing on the ground as he ate a couple of hard legs kicks early then took the fight to the mat for the remainder of the match. Nearly locking in several guillotine chokes in the first two rounds, Sanchez got to Childress’s back, with the hooks in, in the final period, but couldn’t finish with a rear-naked choke as Childress fought him off. Childress couldn’t fight off the loss as Sanchez got a unanimous decision.

Jaime Fletcher didn’t give Randal Limond (Pictures) barely enough time to lace up his gloves as he charged across the ring and locked in a winning guillotine choke on the feet for a round one, 32-second submission win and the quickest victory of the night.

Peter Irving, all the way from England, earned a unanimous decision over Reggie Cardiel (Pictures) by dominating on the ground and on the feet. Although lasting for the entire fight, Cardiel played mostly defense, clinching on the feet and then holding Cardiel on the ground. Cardiel deserves credit as he showed a balanced, aggressive game and pushed the action for all three rounds.

Just two weeks after giving an impressive performance in King of the Cage, Shad Smith (Pictures) was back in the cage against the experienced, motivated, and hard hitting Aric Nelson, who came to bang and stood in front of Smith, not backing down an inch.

Smith, who possess fast and accurate hands but sometimes doesn’t let them go enough, allowed Nelson to dictate the pace of the fight, mainly counterpunching and shooting in. Nelson landed several hard shots during the first two rounds and spent a good amount of time inside Smith’s guard, trying to land punches and dodging Smith’s submission attempts.

Finally, early in the third round, Nelson again got top inside guard position but this time was careless and Smith locked in a fight-ending triangle choke for the third round, 1:06 win. This was a quality win for Smith and pushed his record to 8-4-1.

In the night’s first match, Dominic Verdugo beat Mark Moldenhauer in the third round via a tight guillotine choke against the cage.

Given this was a first event, promoter Eddie Millis had to be happy as the near-capacity crowd was vocal and excited and bound to bring more fans for the second show on September 23 by word of mouth, which is the best advertising there is.

The Ontario Convention Center, with a 2,000 seat capacity, was very modern and clean facility with ample parking, great food and drink concessions, and featured fight gear stands inside such as “No Wimps” and others. All-in-all it was a great venue for mixed martial arts. In the intermission, Millis also featured a crowd-pleasing traditional martial arts demonstration by taekowndo champion Ston Lee, who performed amazing jumping flip kicks that wowed the crowd.

Known as the “Voice of the Octagon” for his UFC ring announcing duties, Bruce Buffer worked as the evening’s ring announcer and continued his longstanding commitment to promoting mixed martial arts around the word.

“I’ve know Eddie for a long time,” said Buffer. “So I was happy to come out and support him. In a bigger sense, I’ve always felt that it’s important to do all I can to promote the sport and to help it to grow everywhere.”