IFL Recap: Champs Retain Their Belts

(”The Janitor” cleaned “The Suit” at the IFL’s Jersey joint.)

Three titles were on the line at last night’s IFL event in East Rutherford, New Jersey and Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko, Wagnney Fabiano, and Jay “The Thorobred” Hieron all successfully defended their titles in front of 5,131 fans at the Izod Center. Matyushenko seemed to be in for quite a fight when his opponent, local boy Jamal “The Suit” Patterson, had a strong showing in the opening frame. The second was a different story, however, and the champ ended the fight with a series of blows for a TKO win with 30 seconds left in the round to raise his record to 21-3.

In Fabiano’s fight, the champion KO’d Seattle fighter Shad Lierley just 37 ticks into the fight, which was somewhat unexpected due to Fabiano’s love for taking it to the ground early. The other championship fight also ended in the first, with Jay Hieron dominating Mark Miller. The fighter picked up a TKO after a vicious GnP of his Chicago challenger.

The camp match-ups pitted Miletich Fighting Systems versus American Top Team and Midwest Combat versus Renzo Gracie Academy. Featherweight LC Davis of KC, got a win for Miletich when he KO’d Rafael Dias in the Brazilian’s second fight for the IFL. The fight was an exciting one throughout and Davis just managed to get the KO with seconds left in the bout. ATT got a win when welterweight Emyr Bussade got a second-round kneebar sub over Jesse Lennox. The deciding fight ended up being a non-decisive one when it was ruled a no contest. It was a light heavy match-up featuring two Pennsylvania fighters, Carmelo Marrero and Mike Ciesnolevicz. The no contest came about when Marrero received a cut on his head from an inadvertent head-butt and the gushing wouldn’t stop. Where’s “Stitch” when you need him?

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Written by admin on April 5th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Fabiano and Matyushenko and tem match-ups and title defense and Horodecki and IFL and Alex Schoenauer and Recap and MMA.

IFL Weight-Ins; WEC Piss-Outs

(Mark Miller (L) will attempt to knock Jay Hieron’s shades off.)

Quiet out on the MMA plains this evening, but here are a couple of news pieces to check out:

— The official weigh-in for tomorrow night’s IFL show in Jersey came and went today, and all went smooth. The show kicks off at 7:30 pm (ET) and goes live on HDNet at 8:30 pm (ET).

Here are the weigh-in results:

Title Fights
Jay Hieron (170) vs. Mark Miller (170.4)
Wagnney Fabiano (145.4) vs. Shad Lierley (145.8)
Vladimir Matyushenko (205.4) vs. Jamal Patterson (205.6)

Non-Title and Team Fights
Delson Heleno (170.8) vs. Brad Blackburn (171)
Jim Miller (155) vs. Bart Palaszewski (155.5)
Nate Lamotte (155.8) vs. Chris Horodecki (154.6)
Mike Ciesnolevicz (206) vs. Carmelo Marrero (205.8)
Emyr Bussade (170) vs. Jesse Lennox (170)
Rafael Dias (145.6) vs. L.C. Davis (145.6)
Alex Schoenauer (204) vs. Brendan Barrett (205.5)

We would post video of the weigh-ins, but it was just too intense for a Thursday.

— Keith Kizer and his NSAC boys weren’t able to bust any of the fighters from WEC 33. Fighters were tested for the normal perf-enhancing drugs and those of abuse. Brian Stann, Doug Marshall, Logan Clark, Alex Serdyukov, Richard Crunkilton, Chael Sonnen, Bryan Baker, Steve Cantwell, and Marcus Hicks were given a pass for their piss. Kizer said that the state of Nevada has had “no positive tests yet this year, although we have tested way more fighters in January through March 2008 than in any other January through March period of years past.” Brag, much?

We would post video of the piss — and other — tests, but it’s too early on a Thursday for that sort of thing.

Written by admin on April 3rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on weigh-in and WEC 33 and drug test and Fabiano and Kizer and Horodecki and Chael Sonnen and IFL and News and Jay Hieron and Brian Stann and MMA.

IFL Show Grows; EliteXC Signs NFL Player

(Alex Schoenauer, in his sleek IFL tank, joins the April 4th event.)

A signing and a fight addition today for two organizations. Check it out:

— The EliteXC is going the way of the UFC…by signing a former NFL cast-off. ProElite has the dish from Mike Camp, manager of former baller Bobby Jones. No not that Bobby Jones. The difference between Bobby Jones and other NFLers like Brock Lesnar, Johnnie Morton, and Bob Sapp is — he’s undefeated (2-0). Oh, and he doesn’t have a penis on his chest.

B.J. won his first fight on August 24th of last year and his second was in January — both via TKO. Jones played in eleven games with the Giants during the ‘02 NFL season, then bolted (aka, was released) for the mighty Arena Football League. And now he’s on to MMA. Why, you ask?

He ultimately decided to test his competitive fire by transitioning into mixed martial arts after being exposed to the sport through competitive grappling and televised MMA events.

“Somebody introduced me to submission wrestling, grappling, and I got into that and I loved it, and did very well there,” Jones was quoted as saying in an ESPN.com article last year. “I wanted to do something more and I watched MMA on TV all the time, UFC and Pride, and I fell in love with it.”

Reminds me of the time when I grew a mustache after watching a rerun of “Magnum, P.I.” It’s coming in nicely.

— The IFL has added a fight to its April 4th Jersey card. Alex Schoenauer will face Jersey boy Brendan Barrett, increasing the fight card to ten bouts on a night that will see title defenses by Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko, Jay “The Thorobred” Hieron, and Wagnney Fabiano. Matyushenko will defend against Jamal Patterson in a light heavy bout, Hieron against Mark Miller for the 170 belt, and Fabiano steps in with Shad Lierley at 145 lbs. The IFL also named two replacements for the show — Jason Black, reppin’ Miletich Fighting Systems, and Jim Miller of Renzo Gracie Academy.

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Written by admin on March 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Bobby Jones and Horodecki and Jay Hieron and News and EliteXC and IFL and MMA.