Fighters Only

Issue 033

January 2008

Chicago, Illinois November 3rd, 2007

An estimated 4100 fans watched live as the league-based IFL conducted their semi-final round of the post-season Grand Prix tournament. An entire article could be devoted to the impact injuries and contract disputes had on this series, but suffice to say the finals set take place December 29th would be the more accurate measure of how the IFL stacks up against the other shows. At the end of the night one champion was crowned and eight finalists were set for the end of year blowout, but the night will probably be remembered most for the performance of the young Canadian Chris Horodecki.

The ‘Janitor’ cleans up

Due to lack of competition the light heavyweight title was up for grabs between UFC vets Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko and Alex Schoenauer. This was basically ground-and-pound vs. sprawl-and-brawl, but also unorthodox in execution. From the beginning Vladimir used lunging abdomen punches to set up double leg takedowns instead of clinch work or dropping levels while Alex attempted to strike and disengage instead of sprawl work. At first the strategy worked for Alex, but once Vladimir scored his first takedown he couldn’t be stopped. For the rest of the three four-minute rounds Vladimir would take Alex down at will, land strikes to the face, and either end the round or get stood up only to take Alex down again. Although Vladimir seemed tired in the third and Alex didn’t seem dazed at any point Vladimir won an unsurprising unanimous decision in an interesting match.

The heavyweight action was predictably the downside of the night, setting up a finals fight between two questionably conditioned ground fighters. Antoine Joaude outlasted Shane Ott, slapping on an arm triangle while Roy Nelson found his second wind in the third round, unleashing a flurry so quick he walked away from the downed Bryan Vetell before the ref stopped the fight. IFL shouldn’t be judged on these two representatives of the division but hopefully the contract disputes and injuries will not be an issue next year.

Polish power

IFL’s true strength is in the lightweight class and the real excitement on this card came with Chris Horodecki vs. Bart Palaszewski, a rematch of their blistering February fight. In that first match Chris won a very close split decision and much of the hype for this entire show was on what amounted to rounds four through six. This night Chris took the first round with his Bas-Rutten / Shaun Tompkins-coached kicking game and combinations, the second round the Jeff Curran-trained Bart gave more and took less damage as he controlled the distance more effectively, and the third was Bart’s power vs. Chris’ combos and speed, with the judges seeing it as Chris by split decision. Not only the best fight of the night but one of the best IFL fights, period.

In December undefeated Horodecki faces Wagnney Fabiano (who defeated John Gunderson by submission). In the first round Fabiano took Gunderson down as the American attempted a guillotine choke, but shortly after Fabiano went for his own guillotine choke, jumping to guard to get Gunderson down. In the second round Gunderson scored with a couple of punches as Fabiano again closed the distance and basically rolled to his back for another guillotine choke, this time securing it and rolling over into top position to finish the fight.

Hieron and Heleno cruise to victory

The welterweight semi finals consisted of two rematches as Jay Hieron and Delson Heleno defeated Donnie Liles and Gideon Ray respectively. Hieron used his wrestling in the first two rounds to control Liles before switching to leg kicks to keep the more one-dimensional fighter at bay in the third, cruising to a dominant judges’ decision.

Heleno advanced after trapping Gideon Ray in an armbar much like their initial encounter. Heleno / Hieron in the finals seems like an interesting fight, possibly a true war, however their fights this night were rather one-sided.

One of the more interesting finals matches is going to be the Middleweight one between UFC vet Benji Radach and Wolfpack (Team Quest) standout Matt Horwich. Benji simply overwhelmed Brent Beauparlant with punches and clinch knees, finally catching the Dragons fighter with a left hook clean on the chin that dropped Brent and ended the fight. Horwich and Brian Foster had a much closer fight, starting with Matt trying to score with clinch knees and Brian defending well. Matt’s takedown of Foster resulted in him being briefly in mount and scoring punches, but as he tried to take the back Foster escaped and stood. Brian scored his own takedown but ended up in Matt’s guard where for what seemed like a minute Horwich kept switching between triangle choke and armbar, going for one as Brian was still trying to escape the other. Finally Brian succumbed to the armbar with only one second left in the first round of a great fight.

Overall the night was successful in terms of both setting up the year-end show and making a live debut on free network television. At this time no additional information is available as to how the December card will be filled out but expect some famous names to be added in the next month.