Backed by a couple of comic book publishers the IFL’s four teams also have silly names, cheesy logos and big name coaches.  Headed up by MMA legends Pat Miletich (Silverbacks), Maurice Smith (Tiger Sharks), Bas Rutten (Anacondas) and Renzo Gracie (Pitbulls), the IFL seemed to be promoting far more on the coaches and the concept than the in-ring product and competitors.  But a couple of things made people sit up and take notice.  First, the IFL roster actually features some very talented competitors with UFC experience and some very promising young fighters on the way up.  When you expect no-name novices, the likes of Travis Wiuff, Gustavo ‘Ximu’ Machado, Ben Rothwell, Devin Cole, Dennis Hallman and Krzysztof Soszynski are a very welcome surprise.  None are likely to shift too many tickets but there are certainly some credible names in there.

The second thing that really sparked interest was Zuffa’s hostility.  Now, everyone is used to Dana White’s visceral hatred of certain fighters but those familiar with White’s apparent ambition to actually transform himself into WWE boss Vince McMahon will notice a pattern.  As soon as McMahon sees an emerging threat he does everything possible to instantly stamp it out.  From the Zuffa lawsuit and comments in the now-infamous Pat Miletich deposition, it is obvious White sees the IFL as just such a threat.  That alone makes the IFL newsworthy, even if ticket sales for this show have gone very slowly and the necessary IFL media frenzy simply hasn’t been forthcoming.  So, how might the first ever League fights, and non-League ‘Superfight’ featuring Jens Pulver, actually go, as the Silverbacks take on the Anacondas and the Pitbulls face the Tiger Sharks?  That will be covered further on but before that, a look at the promotion’s chances of success.

The IFL: A Potential Success Story?

Forget the fighters or the actual matches on this first event for now.  Two main factors will determine whether the IFL survives and grows or crashes and burns.  Firstly, the owners’ patience and secondly, whether they can really get Fox Sports Net (or some other TV station less liable to pre-emptions) behind them.  Without Spike TV, the UFC would simply not be anything like as big as they currently are.  With so much televised UFC action, Zuffa are able to turn that exposure into money as they hook more and more fans and draw them into attending their live shows and buying their pay-per-views.  Zuffa lost huge amounts of money for years until they finally started cashing in with the recent huge gates and big pay-per-view buy rates and the reason for the turnaround is regular television.  They’re also lucky that advertisers see MMA (or more specifically UFC at the moment) as a hot product and the way to tap into the lucrative 18-34 year old males market.  The IFL need to convince TV execs and the advertisers they’re a distinctive part of the same movement or this entire project is going to bleed a lot of money, and potentially collapsing.

The IFL need to accept potentially heavy money losses early on and also be aware their ‘celebrity’ coaches may not be able to bring in the cash in quite the way they hope.  Miletich, Rutten, Smith and Gracie are all huge and massively respected names in the MMA community but to those outside and the all-important casual audience, they don’t mean anything like as much.  None ever headlined a hugely successful pay-per-view since Smith, Rutten and Miletch missed out on fighting on the very first UFCs and obviously, today’s major events.  Smith may be remembered for the then-stunning upset of Mark Coleman at UFC 14 and Miletich because his name has been kept strong thanks to his fighters’ success in the UFC but will people really pay to see the coaches, er, just coach?  Particularly when unlike TUF, you don’t have the allure and the big payoff of the big name coaches actually fighting at any point.  Rutten fought just twice in the US, and that was when UFC buy rates and exposure were negligible, and Renzo Gracie has not fought in the mainland USA since late 1996, on a show very few will have seen or remembered.  Today Rutten is well known as the voice of Pride but Pride pay-per-views, TV ratings and name recognition are significantly lower than those of the UFC.  The names may resonate but whether they will genuinely draw an audience is very much open to question.

One potential problem of focusing so much on the coaches is that they overshadow the fighters and so no genuine ‘star fighters’ emerge, making the reliance on coaches counter-productive.  No matter how much the IFL try and build a sporting franchise type of atmosphere, the important thing is to make some of their fighters’ genuine stars and ticket-sellers.  Making MMA a team sport is a bold move but in the end, they need individual team members to break out of the pack.  Every team sport has its star players and without them, the IFL will really struggle.  The very idea that people will follow a team name needs some work since what sells tickets to fights is seeing Fighter A take on Fighter B in a significant match.  If rumours the IFL are going to actually base their teams in a specific city are true then this does have more of a chance.  But even then, they need to do a huge amount of work to build up a team following, since this is more than just a new franchise of an existing mainstream sport setting up operations.

Only having four teams could be a problem since they will quickly run through all the fresh matches available to them.  After just three shows there are no new matches.  However, the IFL are apparently working on building a broader network of teams to deal with that problem.  With the team concept and use of ‘big name’ coaches there are some uncomfortable parallels with the amateur wrestling based Real Pro Wrestling that died a death in 2005, but at least the IFL is piggy-backing on a genuine success story in the UFC.  The IFL is such a different concept that it will probably take even longer to work than if it was simply another promotion.  That means even more hard work, even more patience and even more deep pockets than would normally be the case.  But if it pays off, they will have something genuinely different and exciting to offer fighting fans.  Of course, that’s a genuinely big ‘if’ at the moment.  And right now, I’m not exactly confident of their chances.  But enough of the business, what about the fights?

Line-up:

Silverbacks vs. Anacondas:

LW: Bart Palaszewski vs. John Shackleford
WW: Rory Markham vs. Mike Pyle
MW: Ryan McGivern vs. Amir Rahnavardi
LHW: Travis Wiuff vs. Alex Schoenauer
HW: Ben Rothwell vs. Krzysztof Soszynski

Pitbulls vs. Tiger Sharks:

LW: Erik Owings vs. Justin Jones
WW: Gustavo Machado vs. Brad Blackburn
MW: Fabio Leopoldo vs. Dennis Hallman
LHW: Jamal Patterson vs. Reese Andy
HW: Carlos Cline vs. Devin Cole

Superfight: Jens Pulver vs. Cole Escovedo

April 29th
Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, New Jersey

http://ifl.tv/

Silverbacks vs. Anacondas: Bart Palaszewski vs. John Shackleford

Freakishly tall for a lightweight at 6’0”, Shackleford (1-1) will at least have a reach advantage over long time Jeff Curran student and owner of a very silly nickname Bart ‘Bartimus’ Palaszewski (20-7).  Polish born Palaszewski is on a 6-fight winning streak where he’s finished 3 opponents with submissions and 3 with his fists.  His last loss came by decision against Clay Guida, who was so impressive in beating Josh Thomson at the huge Strike Force event in San Jose, California last month.  And Palaszewski had won 5 straight before that one.  His experience alone makes him the favourite but Shackleford is also coming off a loss to the raw, but very promising Dustin Hazelett.  Palaszewski has been around, competing mainly in the Midwest but also venturing out to Hawaii for Superbrawl.  He bounced back from a terrible 0-4 start to his career to post a very respectable record and these days tends only to loss to good fighters like Hawaiian cult hero Kolo Koka, ATT star Gesias ‘JZ’ Cavalcante and Guida.  With his well-rounded arsenal and so much more experience, Palaszewski should take this one inside the distance.

PREDICTION: Palaszewski by TKO midway through the second.  Silverbacks 1 Anacondas 0

Silverbacks vs. Anacondas: Rory Markham vs. Mike Pyle

Miletich Fighting Systems regular Markham (5-1) could be facing the biggest challenge of his career against ‘Quicksand’ Pyle (11-2-1).  While Markham is coming off a surprising TKO loss to one-dimensional striker Trevor Garrett in 47 seconds just over a month ago, Pyle fought two weeks before that and destroyed Gustavo ‘Ximu’ Machado after flooring him early with a left hook and then just exploding with a relentless barrage of punches on the ground.  A protégé of Randy Couture, Pyle is on an 8-fight winning streak and he should extend that to 9 in this one.  He’s faced better opposition – drawing with Andrei Semenov, beating Machado, Cesar Gracie student Bret Bergmark and an over-the-hill Shonie Carter and dropping a decision to IFL Colour commentator Quinton Jackson in both men’s 1999 debut – and has been around much longer.  A very good wrestler who looks to throw fast, hard flurries of punches, Pyle will be a big test for Markham, particularly as he has some real submission skills.  Markham debuted less than 2 years ago and is 7 years younger than Pyle at 24.  He has beaten some decent fighters and has never gone the distance, winning 3 by submission.  But Pyle should be too good for him.

PREDICTION: Pyle by decision.  Silverbacks 1 Anacondas 1

Silverbacks vs. Anacondas: Ryan McGivern vs. Amir Rahnavardi

Promising Miletich middleweight McGivern (6-1) stays with his regular coach on the Silverbacks team against long time Bas Rutten trainee Rahnavardi (9-6).  McGivern debuted in 2004 and seems cut from the usual Miletich mould.  A very good wrestler, with great conditioning and adept at controlling and punishing opponents on the mat, McGivern has real potential.  Iranian-born Rahnavardi can certainly take his share punishment, as he showed in his MMA debut against Gary Goodridge at Pride 3 way back in 1998.  In fact, Rahnavardi is better known for his losses than his wins.  He took a hellish beating from the much bigger Goodridge and is well-known in the UK for being knocked out by a perfect Lee Murray punch in an incredible 4 seconds in late 2002.  He’s also lost by submission to TUF2 fighter Keith Jardine.  Rahnavardi does have some decent wins on his record, including a decision victory over Daijiro Matsui in 2000 and is coming off a pair of wins.  But while Rahnavardi has the experience edge, McGivern has been far more active recently, is younger and has taken far less punishment in training and fighting.  McGivern is coming off a submission loss to Brock Larson in his first real test but should come back strongly in this one.  Look for him to take Rahanvardi down, working furiously with punches and elbows to avoid being stood up, and just punish the older man.  I doubt he can stop Rahnavardi (unless he cuts him), but if he can use that kind of a strategy throughout the fight, McGivern should have his hand raised at the end.

PREDICTION: McGivern by decision.  Silverbacks 2 Anacondas 1

Silverbacks vs. Anacondas: Travis Wiuff vs. Alex Schoenauer

Of all the fights on the show, this is the biggest in terms of name value, though it does not look like being the most competitive.  UFC veteran Wiuff (40-7) faces TUF1 contestant Schoenauer (8-4).  A former heavyweight, Wiuff should have a real advantage in size and strength, to go along with far more experience against tougher opposition.  Schoenauer has been busy since being annihilated in 20 seconds by Mike Swick in a middleweight fight at the original TUF finale just over a year ago.  Busy certainly, but with mixed results.  He’s gone 3-3, with all 3 losses coming by submission to chokes and one of his wins being over Shannon Ritch (which some unkind people would suggest barely even counts).  Schoenauer could be in for a very rough time with the brutally powerful Wiuff.  The Minnesota man often comes up short against high quality opposition (Jason Lambert, Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral) and is coming off a decision loss to Marvin Eastman but he should be able to take Schoenauer down quickly and then just mash him with fists and elbows.  Surprisingly for someone with his body type, style and physique, Wiuff has stamina too and will be able to hammer away as long as necessary.  He’s a far better wrestler and holds wins over Matt Horwich, Antoine Jaoude, Ibragim Magomedov, Carlos Barreto and Roman Zentsov.  If he can’t add Schoenauer to that list it will be one of the night’s biggest surprises.

PREDICTION: Wiuff TKO1 Schoenauer.  Silverbacks 3 Anacondas 1

Silverbacks vs. Anacondas: Ben Rothwell vs. Krzysztof Soszynski

25-year old Miletich regular (that’s 4 of the Silverbacks’ starting line-up who were already Pat’s students) Rothwell (16-5) meets part-time pro wrestler, part-time fighter ‘the Experiment’ (7-4-1) in what could be a short, hard hitting fight.  None of Rothwell’s last 4 fights, all of them wins, have gone beyond the first round and he finished off Dan Bobish with a nice knee to the face in a dull fight last month at the Gracie Fighting Championships.  Although not much happened Rothwell did some decent defensive work on his back and the finish was a quality one.  New UFC Heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia’s regular sparring partner is an imposing 6’5” and around 260 pounds but looks chubby compared to the ripped, 6’1” and 240-ish Soszynski.  But Rothwell is the better fighter.  He also has more stamina as Soszynski has a habit of gassing out after swinging wildly from the outset.  That happened in his July 2005 fight with Team Quest bible basher Matt Horwich where Soszynski did well before tiring and being choked out early in the second.  In his last fight, at the San Jose Strike Force show, Soszynski went to an unpopular technical draw when the fight was stopped in just 2:02 after a Mike Kyle thumb found its way into the Canadian based, Polish born fighter’s eye.  But Soszynski already looked on his way to defeat, having clearly been hurt a couple of times and gassing out quickly.  Soszynski is a decent fighter with power in either hand but with his stamina problems, Rothwell really only needs to survive the initial onslaught before using his greater all-round skills to grind out a win.

PREDICTION: Rothwell TKO3 Soszynski. Silverbacks 4 Anacondas 1

Pitbulls vs. Tiger Sharks: Erik Owings vs. Justin Jones

New York based Kentucky native Owings gets a fairly high profile MMA debut for his long time coach Renzo Gracie’s Pitbulls.  His opponent Jones (2-3) has the edge in experience but Owings is a BJJ brown belt with training under Carlson Gracie Jr., a couple of years in Brazil with Gracie Barra and more recently, has been one of Renzo’s star pupils.  Jones has worked with Randy Couture before and now trains with his IFL coach Maurice Smith.  That should improve his striking but he will be way out of his depth on the mat.  Jones has fought, and generally lost to, some decent fighters and has won his last two, but this should be a winning debut for Owings.

PREDICTION: Owings by submission late in the first.  Pitbulls 1 Tiger Sharks 0

Pitbulls vs. Tiger Sharks: Gustavo Machado vs. Brad Blackburn

Blackburn (7-7) just looks out of his depth here.  The ATT West fighter is coming off 4 straight defeats and is facing a very talented, experienced veteran of RINGS, Meca Vale Tudo and Pancrase.  A tough fighter and a real survivor, most of Blackburn’s losses have been by decision but Machado (10-4-1) should finish him inside the distance.  The Brazilian, who usually trains with the Gracie Barra team that includes Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral and Marcio ‘Pe De Pano’ Cruz has an excellent ground game and has faced a much higher level of opposition.  Blackburn’s best wins came against Landon Showalter and Pat Healey and he’s never faced anyone as good as ‘Ximu’ Machado.  Machado may have a questionable chin and Blackburn has shown some power and explosiveness with quick wins over Steve Legault (14 seconds) and Healey (39 seconds) but ‘Ximu’ is just a better fighter.  He’s decisioned Kiyoshi Tamura, TUF1 star Nate Quarry, Yuki Sasaki and Chute Boxe fighter Nilson Da Castro and heelhooked Keichiro Yamamiya and Jorge ‘Macaco’ Patino, all of them fighters who would probably have little trouble with Blackburn.  That chin remains a concern though.  In his last fight a fairly ordinary left hook from Mike Pyle floored Machado early and he was helpless against a following barrage.  He was cleanly KO’ed by the admittedly heavy handed Benji Radach and battered by Ricardo Arona.  And none of those fights lasted longer than 91 seconds.  If Blackburn catches him early he may pull off the upset but Machado should win, possibly with a leglock.

PREDICTION: Machado by submission late in the first.  Pitbulls 2 Tiger Sharks 0

Pitbulls vs. Tiger Sharks: Fabio Leopoldo vs. Dennis Hallman

This one could either be a fascinating ground battle or a total bore.  Brazilian Leopoldo (2-1) has some real BJJ skills but is hardly entertaining.  His opponent Hallman (34-11-2) is one of the most experienced 31-year olds around.  A fighter since 1997, he will always be remembered for a pair of fast (17 and 20 seconds) submission wins over Matt Hughes in 1998 and 2000.  But ‘Superman’ has gone 9-3 since the start of 2004 and despite a couple of good wins over Ross Ebanez and TUF3 contestant Rory Singer (both with rear naked chokes) Hallman has taken some beatings and often looked unimpressive.  Frank Trigg absolutely battered him at UFC 48, Ansar Chalangov stopped him last may and Jorge Rivera beat him by decision at UFC 55 in a fight where Hallman looked awful.  Speaking of looking awful, Leopoldo was just completely and utterly dominated by Matt Lindland in their fight at the Gracie Fighting Championships show in March.  Lindland was all over him from the beginning and just mauled, battered and totally owned him for the entire fight, finishing with a rear naked choke in the third round.  But Hallman is a very different fighter.  For starters, he could be on the slide while Lindland is one of the best middleweights around, and easily one of the very best wrestlers in the sport.  Leopoldo does hold a 2004 decision win over Pancrase regular Yuki Sasaki and although his striking needs some work, he has a very slick ground game and this time should get a chance to show that.  Look for the talented Leopoldo to control the action on the ground and pick up a decision win.

PREDICTION: Leopoldo by decision.  Pitbulls 3 Tiger Sharks 0

Pitbulls vs. Tiger Sharks: Jamal Patterson vs. Reese Andy

32-year old MMA debutant Patterson, a regular student of Renzo Gracie and Ricardo Almeida could be in for a hard time with Andy (2-0).  At 33, Andy is not exactly a young man and only made his MMA debut in 2005, training with Josh Barnett and Matt Hume at AMC Pankration and looking very impressive in his two fights for Hawaiian promotion Superbrawl.  An impressively built light heavyweight, Andy used his excellent wrestling to takedown, maul, control, and then showing some nice submission technique, choke out more experienced striker Trevor Garrett last July.  Very successful in college and with expertise in both Greco Roman and Freestyle, Andy is by far the most accomplished wrestler in the IFL and should be able to use that to great effect here.  Patterson has some good BJJ skills but Andy has a major edge in wrestling, is an explosive, athletic fighter and could be one of the IFL’s best prospects.  Look for Andy to take Patterson down fast and just physically dominate him before finishing him with punches on the ground late in the fight.

PREDICTION: Andy by TKO late in the third. Pitbulls 3 Tiger Sharks 1

Pitbulls vs. Tiger Sharks: Carlos Cline vs. Devin Cole

Cline makes his MMA debut against one of 2005’s most promising North American rookies in the 30-year old Cole (4-1).  Listing his style as BJJ/boxing, Cline is giving up some size and experience against a man who went the distance with Cage Warriors Heavyweight champion and UFC contender Jeff Monson in only his fourth fight.  Cole also has wins over some decent opposition, beating Team Quest fighter Brian Stromberg, Ulysses Castro and most recently, bashing a second round TKO win out of Mike Kyle.  A strong, technically sound wrestler with heavy hands, Cole should take this one.  It may go the distance, but Cole should win the fight.

PREDICTION: Cole by decision.  Pitbulls 3 Tiger Sharks 2

Jens Pulver vs. Cole Escovedo

Long time Miletich fighter Pulver (20-6-1), coming off a devastating knockout of Kenji Arai less than a month ago at Pride: Bushido 10, meets California based ‘Apache Kid’ Escovedo (11-2) in what looks like being a pretty one-sided fight.  Not only is Escovedo giving up some weight against the recently bulked-up former UFC Lightweight king, he’s also facing major deficits in experience and quality of opposition.  Pulver has battled inconsistency, injury and has bounced around all over the place since his ill-advised jump from UFC to Antonio Inoki’s predictably disastrous UFO back in 2002.  While Pulver certainly had reason to be unhappy with Zuffa, believing in the bizarre ideas of the mega-chinned fantasist was at best naive.  Anyway, Pulver has gone 8-4 since his UFC swansong where he deservedly took a decision win over then-company favourite BJ Penn, and he’s provided some spectacular action along the way.  Losing by KO in a couple of memorable Pride: Bushido wars against Takanori Gomi and Hayato Sakurai have only enhanced his reputation and he’s scored some great looking KO’s of his own too.  Highlight reel quality finishes against Naoya Uematsu, TAISHO and Arai have shown that while the 31-year old Pulver may be past his electrifying best he’s still a very dangerous, entertaining fighter.  A typical Miletich product, Pulver is a good wrestler, with some strong but unspectacular submission skills and some high quality striking.  His 2004 flirtation with professional boxing (4-0) seems to be over but striking remains his biggest strength.  Escovedo will need a career best performance to avoid getting knocked out in this one.

Escovedo has lost just twice before – to inconsistent Colin Oyama protégé and sometime Shooto fighter Bao Quach and, in his last fight, to Urijah Faber.  Escovedo lost his WEC Bantamweight title to Faber and took a real beating until his corner threw in the towel before the start of the third round.  Dropped with the first punch of the match, Escovedo never got chance to use his BJJ skills as the highly touted Faber just dominated him from start to finish.  The fact Pulver is an excellent striker, and significantly bigger than Faber makes this fight even more difficult for Escovedo.  The fight is set for the 155 pound lightweight limit but Pulver has been around 160 in Bushido and Escovedo made 145 in WEC.  That will make a difference.  The 24-year old fighter has a strong submission base and has picked up 7 victories with triangle chokes but Pulver is likely to be too experienced and too aware to fall into any trap Escovedo sets up from his back.  If Pulver keeps the fight standing – the way he fought in those epic losses to Gomi and Sakurai – and he has the skills to do that, he should give Escovedo a good beating.  Look for the referee to rescue Escovedo sometime in the second round.

PREDICTION: Pulver by TKO late in the second.

Predictions Re-cap:

Bart Palaszewski TKO2 John Shackleford
Mike Pyle DEC3 Rory Markham
Ryan MicGivern DEC3 Amir Rahnavardi
Travis Wiuff TKO1 Alex Schoenauer
Ben Rothwell TKO3 Krysztof Soszynski
Erik Owings SUB1 Justin Jones
Gustavo Machado SUB1 Brad Blackburn
Fabio Leopoldo DEC3 Dennis Hallman
Reese Andy TKO3 Jamal Patterson
Devin Cole DEC3 Carlos Cline
Jens Pulver TKO2 Cole Escovedo

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