Two elite black belts punched their tickets to paradise on Saturday. 

Both Tanner Rice and Diego Ramalho won the heavyweight and lightweight absolute divisions at the first ever Marianas Pro Qualifier in El Paso, TX. 

The wins ensure a round trip flight to the island of Guam for a chance to compete in the Marianas Pro later this year.

In the finals of the heavyweight absolute Tanner Rice faced Unity black belt Aaron 'Tex' Johnson. The match played slow at first with both men trading sweeps from 50/50 and attacking foot locks. However once Tanner was able to get his passing going he started to put up some big points on the scoreboard. 

It was when Tex disagreed with the points scoring he protested directly to the referee during the match, not once but twice. The resulting dissent from Tex ultimately led to a DQ, giving the win and ticket to Guam to Tanner Rice. 

The score was 18-4 at the time of DQ in favor of Tanner.

Also winning a ticket to Guam was brown belt Kody Steele. The CheckMat brown belt won his division and absolute which ensured him a round trip ticket to compete in the brown belt absolute division for a $1000 cash prize. 

Last year it was Felipe Pena who claimed the Marianas Open top prize. This year's tournament is shaping up to be another exciting bracket!

Watch Highlights From the 2017 Marianas Open: