For those who've forgotten: IFL rules are unified rules with some changes - no elbows at all, 4 minute rounds, and yes; a ring.
1) Delson Heleno vs. Jake Ellenberger: First bout of the night and we've got a couple really high level guys. Ellenberger is actually a substitute for Rory Markham.
FIGHT: Heleno Submission Rnd 2. Not much of a breakdown to offer here - Heleno and Ellenberger are in the clinch from the very start of the fight and Heleno keeps working and working and working for trips and body lock takedowns. Ellenberger's a good wrestler and fights most of them off throughout the first , getting put on his back only briefly a couple times. In the second, the trip comes early in the round and the entire rest of the fight is fought on the mat. Heleno is great on top, getting to mount and flattening Ellenberger out, though doing little damage. Ellenberger bucks him into the full guard, only to get swept himself and armbar'ed late in the round. (3)
2) Bart Palaszewski vs. Devidas Taurosevicius: Two guys who ended up in the WEC and went no further.
FIGHT: Taursevicius Submission Rnd 2. Kinda surprising in retrospect that Taurosevicius went from looking like a future star in this bout dominating Palaszewski and then flamed out so dramatically at both 155 and 145. Bartimus was taken down in the first after tentative striking and absorbed a lot of punches to the face for the majority of the round while Devidas was almost kept on the mat with a rape choke. Second round, we see a body lock and Palaszewski gets the takedown and gets on top. Hey, that's good! Then Taurosevicius gets a high guard, grabs the left leg to give the appearance that he's going for a leg lock, but transitions into an armbar. Palaszewski thinks to try and pull the arm out and it breaks instead. Ugly. (3)
3) Ricco Rodriguez vs. Ben Rothwell: I remember wanting to see this fight so bad and when it hit TV, it was as highlights of round 3 only. Ricco, of course, is a former UFC champion. Rothwell is now in the UFC and had been on a huge run at this point.
FIGHT: Rothwell Unanimous Decision. Again, not a big breakdown to do here because what was done was so simple in some ways. Ben Rothwell is the better man standing by an appreciable amount. Rodriguez, meanwhile, does little offensively aside from some low kicks and going for two guillotines, neither of which was very deep. Every time Rothwell gets put in the guillotine, he pulls his head out and starts punching, earning him (IMO) every round. This really isn't the easiest fight to watch though. Lots of pushing and hugging. (4)
4) Ryan McGivern vs. Fabio Leopoldo: Middleweight contest. Neither guy is really special - McGivern actually won the IFL Middleweight title when they moved to individual belts later on in the dying days of the promotion. Leopoldo should lost his prior two fights coming into this having been given a gift against a young Gerald Harris.
FIGHT: McGivern TKO Rnd 2. Beatdown city. Leopoldo does nothing effective in this fight, isn't able to get takedowns, isn't competitive on the feet. McGivern takes advantage of Leopoldo's wide guard and the fact that he drops his head every time McGivern comes forward with strikes and throws uppercuts over and over and over again. He drops Leopoldo three times with uppercuts and the last one puts Leopoldo down and out for awhile. Heckuva TKO. McGivern only fought twice after the IFL went under and seems to have retired following a loss in Bellator in 2010. (2)
5) Mike Ciesnolevicz vs. Andre Gusmao: Both guys got to the UFC and did very little when they made it there. This fight will also decide who is the IFL Team Champion for 2007. Its a rematch for a fight that Gusmao won in 2007.
FIGHT: Gusmao TKO Rnd 1. Ciesnolevicz comes forward not really setting up the shot and eats a high kick. He stumbles and goes down and Gusmao follows up with punches before the fight gets back to the feet ever so briefly and a knee finishes the bout. Really, the high kick was a grazing shot - if it was flush Ciesnolevicz may never have woken up. (2)
Show is over, Pitbulls are the champs.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
BONUS#1: Daniel Gracie vs. Wes Sims: Jens Pulver is joining the crew for this bout at the Trump Taj Mahal. Its actually a rematch from the Gracie Fighting Championships. Ricco is in the corner for Wes Sims. Also, no Bas and instead we have Steven Quadros! Weird. Fight is from 6/3/2006.
FIGHT: Gracie Submission Rnd 1. Wes Sims gets taken down off an inside trip very early in the bout and is in the half guard, and at that point, the fight is basically over. Gracie moves to mount, Sims gives the back up and stands, and Gracie holds on the whole time. Sims tries to dump him over the top rope but the Herb Dean kinda keeps the rope up holding it and Sims ends up passing out from the choke and collapsing with Sims on his back. Gracie's people rush the ring and are like landing on top of an unconscious Sims. Daniel Gracie goes on to be KOed by Allan Goes and disappears for 5 years before returning at the one and only Israel Fighting Championships Show ever held to date. But let's not be unfair here - he is returning soon to fight with Bellator. (1)
BONUS #2: Shad Lierley vs. Chris Horodecki: Man, another version of "what the hell happened?" Horodecki just wasn't willing to make the sacrifices to cut to 145 where he was better physically suited and now he's outside of the big promotions looking in after being a can't miss prospect once.
FIGHT: Horodecki Unanimous Decision. This is the fight that is popularly considered the greatest in the history of the International Fight League. (4)
Horodecki: Once a young phenom, Horodecki is largely seen as being washed up these days. He just had a lot of big beatings when he lost and this war also didn't do any good for his neurological health. Horodecki had the rep of being a big bopper in TKO and had some nice wins early in his IFL career, but since 2007, Horodecki's career has more than doubled in experience, he's dropped 3 fights, and he hasn't gotten a single win by TKO. Maybe Lierley was the proof that his punching power was totally overrated, because lawd almighty, he hit him with everything about a hundred times each. Horodecki also shows that he's not particularly good at stopping takedowns and isn't any sort of overpowering grappler from his back.
Lierley: Its not often that you can say about a guy that it was a terrible thing to be in a notable fight of the year contender 3 fights into his career. But that is what happened here to Shad - he gave Horodecki everything he could handle in a losing effort and absorbed a lot of stuff in doing so. He's a great tough pug, but the final analysis of this fight and his career isn't positive. You get hit a lot like this, it can ruin you. On top of that, being so competitive with a guy so highly regarded as Horodecki meant that he skipped a few levels of development and ended up in with fighters who were well above his skill level. He dropped to 145 in 2008 for his next fight with Wagnney Fabiano and literally made that guy's hype train before the WEC. Then he goes to Bellator in 2009 and goes 1-1 there beating journeyman Nate Murdock and then losing to a similar sort of shooting star phenom in Wilson Reis.
As a fighter though: Lierley is a wrestleboxer with a wide boxing guard and poor movement. He has a tremendous chin and his takedowns are OK, but nothing stands out about his skill level. In top control against Horodecki he is not that active. He also doesn't have the same level of cardio and is pretty well past it in the 3rd round. But he can see the punches coming from Horodecki and stays in the fight as a result. Wild stuff when he throws but it occasionally sets up the shot.
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT/DVD: Lierley/Horodecki
KO OF THE NIGHT/DVD: McGivern/Leopoldo
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT/DVD: Gracie/Sims
OVERALL FOR THE SHOW/DVD: 7 out of 10. This is a pretty entertaining (in general) set of bouts with a cult classic included, a couple wild submissions, some beatdown KOs, and one sorta lousy but important fight.
D&R Rating: 54% (19/35) Highest rating attained thus far. If you score it solely as the 5 fights from the night in question alone, its a 56% instead.
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