IFL Battleground Review for March 19, 2007

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IFL Battleground – In My Humble Opinion

After the debut episode of IFL Battleground, which recapped the 2006 IFL season and introduced this season’s new teams, I was really looking forward to the March 19 episode. I expected to see recaps of the fights in the order they occurred with promised behind the scenes back story introducing the many fresh faces of the IFL fighters. Once again, however, viewers saw the 2006 season highlighted with bouts featuring Pat Miletich’s Quad City Silverbacks, Sebastian “Bas” Rutten’s Los Angeles Anacondas, Matt Lindland’s Portland Wolfpack, and Ken Yasuda’s Tokyo Sabres. That’s right, another recap of 2006.

Honestly, I was left a little cold for the first hour of the two-hour program. Other than learning that Rutten earned his first black belt at age 15, was an undefeated international champion by age 20, and among the first MMA world champions, the first hour was nearly a repeat of the first episode with regard to the bouts that were shown.

I suppose the 2006 recap made sense in light of the controversial battle between Alex Schoenauer and Aaron Stark which robbed the Anacondas of their quest for the 2006 championship. Schoenauer had Stark in an ankle lock; Stark appeared to tap and the fight was stopped then immediately restarted (a bull-crap decision on the part of the referee, in my humble opinion). Schoenauer had already let Stark go, thinking the fight was over, which allowed Stark to recover only to secure a guillotine choke on Schoenauer for the win. Bas Rutten never got the chance to show that his team could sweep Miletich’s Silverbacks. That is until 2007 when that is exactly what happened.

Nevertheless, I found myself wondering why the first non-introductory episode of Battleground wasn’t featuring the Nevada Lions against the San Jose Razorclaws or the Southern California Condors against the Seattle Tigersharks. These were the first two cards of the 2007 season. Maybe it’s just me, but I was expecting to see recaps of these four teams with all that insider information I was promised. The Shamrock versus Shamrock drama alone would have made for great TV.

Despite my expectations of chronology being unmet, the second hour of Battleground was more satisfying than the first because the fights were from this season. The inside information fell a little short as it mostly consisted of short pre-fight interviews with the fighters and only a little footage from the teams’ training.

The best part of hour two was the caliber of fights presented. Holy cow! I think the IFL fighters might be a little more aggressive that their UFC counterparts. Perhaps this is because they have less time to get the work done or maybe it’s because of good old-fashioned team spirit. Either way, there wasn’t a single fight that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.

The Anacondas’ welterweight, Jay “The Thorobred” Hieron made quick work of the Silverbacks’ alternate Victor Moreno when Moreno tapped out to Hieron’s rear naked choke 1:55 into the very first round.

The battle between Rutten’s middleweight, Benji Radach and Miletich’s Ryan McGivern was longer and packed with action. Right off the bat, McGivern catches Radach with a big right hand, nearly knocking him out. Rattled, Radach recovers, gets the take down, and repays McGivern with ground and pound punishment. The referee moved the combatants to the center of the ring twice before the first round ended. Round two looked like a game of Rock’em Sock’em Robots with both fighters swinging way past the fences until they found themselves in a clinch at the ropes. Knees were evenly exchanged until the referee again moved them to the center. While McGivern did land a hard right, another clinch got them again moved to center ring. When the fight resumed, a flurry of punches were dealt by both men but Radach landed two hard uppercuts followed by a right hook which dropped McGivern to his knees. Capitalizing, Radach pounded out haymakers until the referee stopped the fight, giving Radach the TKO.

The final, and most anticipated, fight of the night was between two undefeated lightweights, LA’s 19-year-old prodigy Chris Horodecki and Quad Cities’ Bart Palaszewski. Round one showed exactly why neither fighter had been beaten before this bout. They were evenly matched with punches and kicks. One of Palaszewski’s punches clearly stunned Horodecki and was followed by a machine gun of punches and a take down which allowed the older fighter to hammer the younger man’s face. Palaszewski locked in a guillotine choke, clearly putting Horodeck’s record in jeopardy. Horodecki, pinned against the ropes, pushed himself through to pause the fight. The round-ending bell rang as Horodecki returned to the ring. Round two showed a recovered Horodecki taking Palaszewski to the ground. After little action, the fight was stood up. After a brief exchange, Horodecki achieves another take down with little action, again causing the fight to be restarted on its feet. Horodecki found himself swept into the ropes in round three which causes the fight to be restarted in the center. Horodecki gets another take down followed by kicks to Palaszewski’s thighs. As Palasziewski returns to his feet, he knees Horodecki in the face while Horodecki’s knee was still touching the mat, earning the Silverback a warning from the referee. Having gone the distance, the win was awarded to Chris Horodecki by split decision, effectively giving the team win to the Anacondas by way of the sweep that Rutten always knew they could accomplish.

I’m still looking forward to the Lions/Razorclaws and the Condors/Tigersharks episodes. I think the show could easily be condensed to an hour but I won’t argue if the quality of background, history, and interviews picks up. In all, though, IFL Battleground appears to have a lot of potential in its own fledgling season. All it needs to do now is live up to its hype. The IFL teams certainly have.

The Inside Pulse
While initially disappointed that the recaps were not going to be chronilogical to the actual events, I feel that IFL Battleground still has good potential. I would like to see more inside information and personal stories but overall it’s a good show. I’m looking forward to seeing where the IFL takes it.

Matthew Michaels is one of the original editors of Pulse Wrestling, and was founding editor of Inside Fights and of Inside Pulse Music.