IFL: ROAD TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP 2007 (9/20/2007

This is a little strange because, hey - its not really a review of a fight card as much as it is the one IFL commercial DVD. It opens up with a bunch of commercials for stuff like the USO, Muscle Milk, Headblade, and a bunch of other junk. There's only 7 fights on the DVD, but they are pretty nifty ones, I gotta admit. This show generally emanates from the Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL, but there's some bonus fights from god knows where. Kenny Rice and Bas are your announcing crew. This is Pitbulls vs. the Silverbacks (Renzo vs. Miletich for coaches).

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.

INTERNATIONAL FIGHT LEAGUE 4/4/08

I went to what was, apparently, the final IFL show in existence a few weeks back. It was a sort of weird feeling show but it seemed that they were totally gung ho about the August event, even if many of the internet hardcore fans (myself included) were less enthusiastic about their chances. It was odd that they picked a 4 month gap between events when there was a 6 week gap between this April show and that May event, in my book. So, as a bit of a tribute to the likely fallen organization, here is a review of their (probable) next to last event. HDNet is televising, and Bas and Kruk are announcing.

1) CHRIS HORODECKI vs. NATE LAMOTTE: Horodecki recieved a lot of publicity from the company after his exciting fight with Shad Lierley and the fact that he was undefeated. He made it all the way to the Grand Prix finals before luck ran out. Ryan Schultz pounded him into dust and became the IFL's lightweight champ, further crippling one of the few stars they had managed to make. Lamotte was chosen as his comeback fight.

Round 1 shows the two approaches at play here. Lamotte wants takedowns and ground and pound. Horodecki wants to be standing and delivering punches and kicks. He reminds me a significant amount of Sam Stout, perhaps without the one punch KO ability. He does do a decent job early on of preventing the takedown and pummeling for the underhooks. When there's separation, he's clearly the class of the two. Right hands and low kicks are especially valuable here. Lamotte's best chance for offense comes at the end of the round as he nearly gets a takedown, but Horodecki blatantly holds the ropes to prevent it. Miragliotta, BTW, is the ref here. Start the conspiracy theories now!

Round 2 continues in much the same vein. Lamotte is able to secure a takedown by grabbing a low kick and forcing forwards, but its short lived as Horodecki is able to get his feet on the hips and push off, returning this fight to standing. Horodecki continues the assault of low kicks, with the sole next moment of offense being a feinted shot by Lamotte that Horodecki buys into, sprawls with the air, and then nearly gets spun on by Lamotte. Horodecki is enough of an athlete to prevent getting his back taken or even being flipped onto the bottom though, and the fight stays on its feet, even with a knee landing to the mush of Lamotte in the clinch before the two separate.

Round 3 opens the same way as all the others. Lamotte wants that take down but won't string together enough shots to get inside and take a dominant position. He's probably never fought anyone good enough to actually prevent his stuff and so he's been lazy about improving how to actually get the fight where he wants it. After eating a bunch more kicks, he finally gets the fight down for an extended period of time with only 1:30 remaining in the fight, and he really only lands anything substantial from a ground and pound perspective in the last 30 seconds. I gave Horodecki the round for having won the first 2:30 and having denied any real offense for another minute, but the judges let Lamotte steal that one. UD, 29-28 all around. (2)

2) BART PALASZEWSKI vs. JIM MILLER: Miller's brothers fight. Bartimus trains with Total-MMA writer Bill Thompson totally trains with him. Or trained. Or something. I remember he talked about it a lot. But anywho, THE FIGHT.

Round 1, much like the last fight, is this fight in a nutshell. Palaszewski wants to stay standing because his standup is crisper. Miller wants to go on the mat because his wrestling is better. Unlike the TV opener, Miller's wrestling is better than Palaszewski's takedown defense, and so it ends up on the mat primarily. Miller nearly locks in an anaconda early in round 1, but Bart is able to get out of that and bring it back to the feet. Well, at least until he decides to bodylock and slam Miller. That doesn't work all that well, what with Miller being better on the mat, and Miller ends up getting the fight up, landing a crisp right hand, and then clinching up again with Bartimus. Palaszewski gets taken down right into side control, but goes for a leg. He is punished for his efforts. Easy round for Miller.

Miller shoots early in round 2 and Palaszewski's early success with the sprawl doesn't last, as he gets taken down anyhow and put in side control. He gains half guard on a poor attempt to pass to mount by Miller, which is helpful for a few moments. Miller passes again and goes for a guillotine, gets put back in half guard, and a sweep by Palaszewski puts this on the feet again. Palaszewski's offense for the round is a right hand that lands while standing, which he follows with a shot that fails miserably and leads to him being on the bottom in, you guessed it, half guard.

Final round begins with a Miller take down attempt. Palaszewski actually blocks it and decides to go for a standing kimura. He is not Sakuraba, unfortunately, and Miller spins around to the back and basically rides Palaszewski down. The next 3 minutes are Miller riding Palaszewski's back and trying to get a rear naked choke while Palaszewski looks around as if he is confused and attempts some toeholds that Miller uses as opportunities to make everyone believe he's really gonna finish the fight. Doesn't happen. Palaszewski eventually realizes that when Miller loosens his hooks, he should probably spin around and try to stand up, since there's no other way he can win. This doesn't connect in his brain until there's about 30 seconds left in the fight. Miller rides this out standing by not getting hit with anything stupid and wins a unanimous decision on all 3 cards of 30-27. (3)

3) BRAD BLACKBURN vs. DELSON HELENO: Heleno was the IFL's favorite to win the middleweight title, and whoops! He failed, and that belt was never successfully defended. Blackburn is a journeyman fighter with losses to Roger Huerta and Rory Markham and wins over Jay Hieron and Chris Wilson. Very inconsistent to say the least.

Round 1 has the usual halfhearted standup to start leading into the opening takedown attempt by Heleno. He gets the fight down and is in half guard, Blackburn regains guard and uses that to put himself back on his feet. Heleno doesn't want it there and takes him down again. Heleno is doing his damnedest to get through the guard of Blackburn, and his mediocre hammerfists aren't really doing the job of distracting Blackburn. Needing something else, Heleno thinks the eternal question of "What would Sakuraba do?," gets up out of the open guard, and then tries a leaping guard pass with punch. Pretty much all Heleno.

Second stanza starts much the same. Heleno is obviously not looking for a punch or kick to get him the win, and that's Blackburn's only real chance. He's not getting any luck teeing off, with another takedown from Heleno that sees most of the round being a positional battle with Blackburn trying to not get mounted for very long and Heleno trying to constantly pass guard/half guard. Heleno goes for the leaping punch/pass again here. Blackburn does get an opening during this to try a toehold, but Heleno quickly reverses and mounts him to end the round.

As the final round starts, the fight looks pretty noncompetitive. Heleno has controlled the whole fight and in doing so provided little action. Blackburn decides in round 3 that he wants to be on top and actually goes for the takedown himself, which he is easily denied. Interesting tactic though, probably well late in the fight. Heleno surprises no one by then shooting for another double leg. This time Blackburn is more prepared to defend, having given himself more distance. He easily stuffs the halfassed shot and then throws a whistling right hand at Heleno, connecting dead on the temple. Heleno is done. Blackburn jumps on him and throws some more punches, and the ref stops the bout. Kruk had said just 10 seconds before that Blackburn needed something spectacular, and that was it. (2)

4) VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO vs. JAMAL PATTERSON: I'm a big fan of Matyushenko, but I'm also cognizant that he's not one hundred percent what he was in the late 1990s. Still, he's rebounded beautifully from the KO loss to Arlovski to get legitimate wins over Tim Boetsch, Justin Levins, and Alex Schonenauer. He's argurably a top ten fighter, and I posed that question at the Total-MMA forums some time ago. I really haven't gotten a chance to watch him of late, and so this was a pretty key bout to watch on the card. This is, of course, scheduled for 5.

Round 1 is actually a Patterson round. Matyushenko looked very slow in against Barretto until Carlos' knee exploded, and he's still very slow of hand here. Maybe slower. Patterson actually puts together several punches that land, and one early in the round hurt Matyushenko. VMAT doesn't get his act together until late in the round, as he begins to throw the push kick to set up the double, which he's somewhat successful in obtaining (I say somewhat since Patterson actually tried to get a guillotine and was willing to go down to the mat). Unfortunately, he does little with it once he has control and rides out the final 30 seconds of the round.

Round 2 is a completely different story. Maty throws the hard right looping shot and follows it with a takedown. Passes guard with a fair amount of ease and keeps going for that Matt Hughes tactic of trapping the arm while pounding. Patterson is defenseless under Matyushenko and gets rolled on. The ref finally jumps in to stop it after what was a classic GNP performance. (3)

5) WAGNNEY FABIANO vs. SHAD LIERLEY: Lierley was in the best IFL fight ever and Fabiano is a monster 145 lb fighter who will probably not be in a great deal of trouble when it comes to getting a contract elsewhere. This is scheduled for 5 for Fabiano's title.

Fabiano comes out throwing low kicks and they are absolutely vicious. Lierley drops his hands and Fabiano plants a right hand on Lierley. Lierley is absolutely stone cold out. (3)

6) MARK MILLER vs. JAY HIERON: And here we've got the main event of the night. Mark Miller is a decent fighter and Jay Hieron is a chronically underrated fighter in my book. Hieron has less than spectacular results in the UFC, but he's training at Extreme Couture now and the IFL title he won is a big boost in confidence.

One short but sweet round. Hieron gets the takedown with a legtrip early and just punishes Miller with strikes from full guard. Miller just really not able to defend them at all and the fight is stopped after about 2 minutes or so. Coleman-like ground and pound is so awesome to watch on TV. (2)

Luckily, HDNET doesn't go off the air quite yet. Prelims!

7) EMYR BUSSADE vs. JESSE LENNOX: Bussade just was featured in the review I did of Ring of Fire 3, so its nice and actually surprising to see him again so soon. Lennox is some young buck training at MFS.

Lennox has horrible striking, probably because there are no decent boxing trainers in Iowa. He is, here's a shock, a good wrestler. He goes for the clinch early in the fight and Bussade tries to drag him down by pulling guard. The problem is that Lennox has some of that vaunted "farm strength" and holds him up in the air before slamming him and then standing up again. Okay, so he can't strike and he's afraid of getting subbed, so, uh, how is he gonna win? They trade punches in an amateurish fashion, with whomever decides to throw straight landing and the other guy who throws in a looping fashion getting his punches somewhat nullified. Bussade pulls guard again, and Lennox is all HULK SMASH and tries to land punches. Bussade goes for a leg, Lennox defends well and punches some more. Bussade gets out of the position and brings it back to standing, and more punching exchanges. 10-9 to Lennox.

Round 2 again goes the same way. Lennox this time displays a low kick that almost sweeps Bussade off his feet, and then they punch some more. Then circle, punch more. Bussade pulls guard and Lennox wants it back up for more clubberin'. Bussade is not stupid and instead of agreeing to that subconsciously, he uses Lennox's ignorance as to how to protect himself when trying to escape to grab his leg and turns into a kneebar. Lennox is clueless and just tries to pull straight out with his leg, but its figure four'ed and in super tight. As one could expect, there is a lot of screaming from Jesse Lennox, as he is in such severe pain he doesn't even think to tap out. The ref is smart enough to interpret the cries as a submission and breaks it up. This is good because I do like to do a "submission of the night" and there wasn't one in the whole show other than this. (1) because neither is a top contender, but it is a pretty gnarly kneebar.

8) CARMELO MARRERO vs. MIKE CIESNOLEVICZ: This is a pretty interesting fight between a IFL product and a UFC washout. Marrero infamously ruined Dana White's day at UFC 64 by beating Chieck Kongo, thus (for at least a little while) taking a heavyweight hopeful out of contention.

Marrero shoots in for a takedown and gets a chin to the top of the head that causes a geyser of blood. Marrero is all over Ciesnolevicz and tries to just beat him down and out before the ref stops it, but no use. Worst of all, Ciesnolevicz is initally ruled the winner because its claimed that a high kick caused the cut, though watching the fight itself and replays, its obvious no part of his leg or foot was anywhere near Marrero's head and that their skulls collided hard. Later on, it was changed to a NC. As with all no contests: (0)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Heleno/Blackburn. Really, its tough to give it to any bout but this. Blackburn made it all worthwhile with a sudden turn of events.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Fabiano/Lierley

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Lennox/Bussade

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4.5 out of 10. A bit on the dull side, particularly early on. Some decent performances in the title fights, however.

D&R RATING: 40% (16/40)