Planet Tapout 4.1.08: IFL - New Blood New Battles Preview!
Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 04.01.2008
The IFL is in New Jersey this Friday for its second card of the 2008 season and Planet Tapout has your complete preview! Three title bouts are on the card and one of the champs will lose his belt! Who's going down? Find out inside. All that plus Miscellaneous Musings and This Week in Fight Picks in the latest edition of Lotfi Sariahmed's Planet Tapout!
Welcome to the MMA column that has officially lost its NCAA bracket champ (I thought Texas could beat Memphis)! It's Planet Tapout here at 411Mania.com and this is the man who thinks Stephen Curry should be made President of Davidson, Lotfi Sariahmed. No mailbag this week as you clearly do not like the WEC. I jest, but don't forget about emails and comments. Be one with the mailbag! The email address is PlanetTapout@gmail.com. Now onward to Planet Tapout!
The IFL's back! Did you miss it? Following its debut for the 2008 season in February, the IFL is back, this time in New Jersey, on April 4th and it's put together a good card once again. Three title bouts with the welterweight, featherweight and light heavyweight belts on the line. All three bouts are compelling...at least on paper. Don't forget the "card is subject to change." But I digress. There's also some pretty good individual bouts in the camp battles and Chris Horodecki and Alex Schoenauer are also on the card. As always yours truly is here to preview the card so why don't we start from bottom to top?
Additional Bouts!
Chris Horodecki v. Nate Lamotte
Remember this?
Pretty sure Horodecki does. It was his (drastic) fall from grace and this Friday night starts his climb back up. In Nate Lamotte he faces a fighter who's 6-2 and doesn't have that big fight under his belt. Lamotte's won his last three fights including one back in February over Stephan Stengal. If he sounds like he shouldn't threaten Horodecki to you, that's because he shouldn't. The IFL wants to bring him back up all the while praying he's learned something about a ground game. The only reason Horodecki would have any trouble in this bout will be because he wants everyone to know he has a ground game and tries to show it off. The bigger question coming out of this bout will be how will the IFL handle Horodecki if he wins? Throwing him into a title bout would just be begging for disaster given the depth of this lightweight division. Horodecki v. Gunderson? Horodecki v. Palaszewski? Either would be a compelling next bout if he disposes of Lamotte.
Alex Schoenauer v. Brendan Barrett
The light heavyweight of TUF fame is back in the IFL for his third season taking on Brendan Barrett, who is not. Barrett is 3-2 in MMA with the notable bout being a loss to Tim Boetsch in his last fight. Barrett's serving the same role for Schoenauer as Lamotte is for Horodecki. Schoenauer is going into this bout coming off two losses, albeit to two of the better light heavyweights the IFL has to offer. He lost to Vladimir Matyushenko in the light heavyweight title bout that originally awarded the belt. Prior to that he lost to Mike Ciesnolevicz in a split decision during a fight where he didn't do enough to win and Ciesnolevicz didn't do anything to lose...less than a stellar bout. But Schoenauer is still more talented than Barrett and anything less than a finish would be shocking to me.
Camp Bouts!
American Top Team v. Miletich Fighting Systems
Two of the top camps in MMA meet head-to-head in New Jersey and all three bouts really demonstrate the depth these teams have. At featherweight, Rafael Dias is back after he beat Santino DeFranco back in February. He's taking on LC Davis of Miletich Fighting Systems. If you remember back to when the IFL first awarded its title belts, Wagnney Fabiano beat LC Davis in the featherweight title bout. No disrespect to Davis obviously but I just don't understand all the hype behind the Miletich fighter. It seems like he was put into that aforementioned title fight because he was the other featherweight available. He's 9-1 but show me where the big win is. Mind you this will still be a step up in competition for Dias but I think he could handle Davis given what I believe to be a superior ground game. Dias will give ATT one of the three bouts.
A welterweight bout has Emyr Bussade of ATT taking on Jesse Lennox of Miletich Fighting Systems. For Bussade this was a bout that went from tough to manageable as Team Miletich kept having to pull fighters. Rory Markham had to pull out and then Jason Black leaving Bussade with Jesse Lennox. Bussade is 10-5 in MMA but he's lost three of his last four bouts, his last one being to Andrei Semenov on a BodogFight card in November. In Lennox he's facing a fighter who's 6-0 with four submission wins. This bout is really a toss-up to me and while Bussade isn't that impressive, I'll pick him in a coin toss fight.
The third bout between these two camps is at light heavyweight where we see two familiar names. Carmelo Marrero will be representing ATT taking on Mike Ciesnolevicz of Team Miletich. Both fighters excel on the ground. UFC fans are familiar with Marrero's ground exploits with his performance against Cheick Kongo. Ciesnolevicz wrestled at the powerhouse Lock Haven before jumping into the IFL. This bout is the easiest for me to pick of the three. Ciesnolevicz has a more dynamic MMA game. Marrero showed in the Kongo fight he can take you down but what comes after that is really anyone's guess. Ciesnolevicz is far from a stalwart in any one area but has a better overall game compared to Marrero
Midwest Combat v. Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu
While you might not be familiar with the Midwest Combat team (a coach hasn't been named yet), there are a lot of talented fighters in the camp and we'll start with Bart Palaszewski. "Bartimus" made the switch from Team Miletich and will be fighting for the first time in 2008 against Jim Miller. Palaszewski looks to start 2008 much differently than 2007. A loss to Chris Horodecki at the start of the 2007 snapped Palaszewski's 11-fight win streak and led to a year where he went 3-3. The last time he lost more than once was back in 2004. He's facing Jim Miller who, after some debate he'd be fighting Marcus Aurelio in the UFC, signed on with the IFL after beating Chris Ligouri twice in back-to-back Ring of Combat shows. This should be a nice bout because Miller is certainly no slouch. However, I favor Palaszewski. I think the time off will do him wonders and he'll be back in the discussion among the IFL's top lightweights before long.
In another bout between the camps (the third being a title bout), Brad Blackburn will be fighting for Midwest Combat taking on Renzo Gracie's prize welterweight, Delson Heleno. The analysis here is simple. Heleno will try and take this down and if he does, he'll win. If Blackburn can keep this up and avoid the takedown he has a chance. I like Blackburn in the fight, but I wouldn't put it past him to put together another fight like he did against Jay Hieron.
Championship Bouts!
Featherweight Title Bout: Wagnney Fabiano v. Shad Lierley
As soon as they announced the initial featherweight title bout between Fabiano and LC Davis, I questioned just whom exactly would the IFL be getting to fight Fabiano? While it still seems like they threw Davis in there just because he was a warm body who could make 145, that certainly isn't the case here. Shad Lierley is a good opponent for Fabiano because you can never really gauge just how much heart Lierley has. He will continue to push the pace and throw down until he gets knocked out or submitted. It's what gave the IFL one of its fights of the year in 2007 (also Lierley's last fight).
But with all that said, I like Fabiano to retain his belt. I think he REALLY needs to be fighting a superior striker to pose him some problems. Lierley, though tough, really isn't that guy. Don't forget Fabiano is a stud on the ground and will give Lierley a lot of problems. If someone is going to take that featherweight belt off Fabiano's waist this year, it won't be someone in the IFL right now.
Welterweight Title Bout: Jay Hieron v. Mark Miller
Here's the problem with this bout. Miller could win. But it will be by one of those flash KO deals. I think Hieron has more skill overall than Miller but he's susceptible to the knockout (see his bout v. Blackburn above). Miller is also a very tough fighter. But a tough fighter does not a good mixed martial artist make...at least not entirely. I like Hieron in the bout but I don't feel great about it. He's not refined enough for me to look at this bout and not worry about Miller stealing one.
Light Heavyweight Title Bout: Vladimir Matyushenko v. Jamal Patterson
To say I love this fight would be an understatement. Andre Gusmao (almost a UFC vet) and Tim Boetsch (fighting at UFC Fight Night 13) both sat on the "bench" behind Patterson as part of the Pitbulls. If it weren't for Patterson's injuries who knows where he might be. The Renzo Gracie light heavyweight already knows how he can attack Matyushenko (Boetsch gave Matyushenko a lot of problems at the team semifinals last year). If Patterson can take Matyushenko down, then he's at a bit of an advantage with his jiu-jitsu. What makes this bout so good though is what both fighters bring. Because even if/when this fight does go to the ground, Matyushenko's wrestling is pretty solid. As for the stand-up games? I give the slight edge to Patterson but really its more of a wash than anything else. I always want to pick one upset every card and I have enough confidence in Patterson to make this one the bout. Matyushenko will lose his belt to Patterson in the one title change on the night.
Miscellaneous Musings!
●Ryan Roberts' nickname is "Are you Ready?" according to the UFC website...are you serious?
●So Cung Le beat Frank Shamrock. Congratulations. I can't say I honestly expected it. But lets not get too excited and say Cung Le could beat up Anderson Silva. This fight said, "Ok, lets start paying attention to Cung Le as a potential big time middleweight."
●Someone please tell Drew Fickett he's not that good to be running his mouth like he did...
●Looking for a non-televised bout on the UFC Fight Night 13 card to pay attention to? How about George Sotiropoulos v. Roman Mitichyan? We all know about Sotiropoulos and I expect him to beat Mitichyan. But Mitichyan didn't get a chance to do much of anything as part of Season 6. Then all he did was come out and pistol whip Dorian Price at the Finale. It's just a fight I'm paying attention to.
●Hey! I found Josh Neer!
●I'm not a Kenny Florian fan and I was praying for a reason to pick against him here. But after his last couple of performances, to pick against him here would potentially destroy any credibility I had left as a writer (but did I have any to begin with? That is the REAL question).
●Leonard Garcia is an idiot.
●Tim Sylvia leaving the UFC will do no good for Tim Sylvia or the UFC. Signing with Adrenaline MMA is just a way of helping his manager out while getting more "Tim Sylvia" time. The problem is, unless he fights Ben Rothwell six times a year, there aren't that many people for him to fight. He wants to fight Fedor...ok, then what? There's the Josh Barnett fight but getting these fights together requires the other fighter. With the money Fedor and Barnett are looking for is that even feasible? I know the deal is not exclusive but name me the last time two promotions came together and put together a big name bout?
●What goes for Tim Sylvia, goes for Ben Rothwell thirty fold. I understand cashing in when you're on top and I'm all for that. But this is a potential one and done situation for Rothwell. Say he goes out, fights Sergei Kharitonov lets say, and gets knocked out in a less than competitive bout. Then what? At least he has a chance to build himself up in the UFC where you could take on progressively harder opponents. He couldn't finish Ricco Rodriguez and he could be taking a GIANT leap in competition.
This Week in Fight Picks!
IFL: New Blood New Battles!
Chris Horodecki over Nate Lamotte
Alex Schoenauer over Brendan Barrett
Rafael Dias over LC Davis
Emyr Bussade over Jesse Lennox
Mike Ciesnolevicz over Carmelo Marrero
Bart Palaszewski over Jim Miller
Delson Heleno over Brad Blackburn
IFL Light Heavyweight Title Bout: Jamal Patterson over Vladimir Matyushenko
IFL Featherweight Title Bout: Wagnney Fabiano retains over Shad Lierley
IFL Welterweight Title Bout: Jay Hieron retains over Mark Miller
UFC Fight Night 13!
Anthony Johnson over Tommy Speer
George Sotiropoulos over Roman Mitichyan
Clay Guida over Samy Schiavo
Manny Gamburyan over Jeff Cox
Marcus Aurelio over Ryan Roberts
Din Thomas over Josh Neer
Frank Edgar over Gray Maynard
Houston Alexander over James Irvin
Nate Diaz over Kurt Pellegrino
Tim Boetsch over Matt Hamill
Karo Parisyan over Thiago Alves
Kenny Florian over Joe Lauzon
The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage v. Team Forrest!
Because I haven't read any spoilers and because I'm an IFL fan (if you hadn't noticed), I'm picking Gerald Harris to win the thing. Of course this means he won't even make the show now.
That's it for this week on Planet Tapout! Don't forget about the mailbag and comments. Send me your thoughts, loving, hateful and otherwise. The email address is PlanetTapout@gmail.com .
Make sure you come back next Tuesday for another edition of Planet Tapout! This week in MMA gives us the IFL card in New Jersey on Friday with the three title bouts. Of course there's also the UFC Fight Night card on Wednesday leading to the newest season of The Ultimate Fighter. There's also a Fatal Femmes Fighting card on Thursday featuring Roxanne Modaferi and Amanda Buckner among others. Friday also features a King of the Cage card as well as another ShoXC show with Jared Hamman taking on Poai Suganuma in the main event. Enjoy the fights everyone.
