03/12/2007 IFL Battleground Coverage

Tonight is the first episode of IFL's Battleground and so welcome to OC Times coverage of this show.

It could take me some time to get familiar with who everyone is supposed to be but I'll give it a shot.

Apparently, this is the night we've been talking about for years as MMA has made it to Network TV. I promise you I've not been talking about this for years or even seconds.



They've waited all year to say that IFL Battle Ground is on My Network TV...well, I hope they're satisfied. I hope it was good for them because it wasn't good for me.

Tonight, we are introduced to the International Fight League. Ok, but it might be hard to shake hands with a league. Of course, it is probably not as hard as some of the things we accused Vince Russo of doing with a poll on the last ACE Podcast.

We get clips from people talking about how IFL is the future, how a team concept for MMA is a genius idea and so on and so forth. You wouldn't expect them to say any different.

They have 9 bouts for us, 9 bouts tonight and 9 bouts to show the best of last season. Hey, did you know there are 9 bouts? They've only mentioned this about 1600 times in 30 seconds.

Many of us are getting to see the IFL for the first time, aren't we lucky?

I'm not really familiar with who everyone is that is talking but for a first episode that's not necessarily a shock.

We next get a rundown of the rules. They talk about the various disciplines involved in MMA. In the IFL, we get 3 rounds of 4 minutes a piece instead of 5 as are standard under NSAC regulations.

They introduce the 12 teams. We have 10 teams in the U.S. one from Canada and one from Japan. They explain that each team has a coach and that each team has 5 fighters, 1 from each of the five weight classes. The first team to 3 wins earns the victory in the team matchup. Looking at the IFL's website, you also get 10 points for KO, Submission or TKO, 5 points for a Unanimous decision and 2 for a split decision. Those points are used as tie breakers in the standings.

Now that we know the rules, it is time for action.

But before we get to the action, we get some more talking about the action. Yay, talking! Of course, we hear from Bas Rutten so that gets many thumbs up even if he's not talking for long, though I'm sure he'll be back.

We are told that the job of an IFL coach is a 24 hour one. I hope that's a week not a day because that would certainly suck.

They show one of the IFL ring girls and I don't have a problem with this.

12 teams only 1 will win the championship. Supposedly, each coach has a different game plan for winning and we're going to find out what they are. We're introduced to Bas, Don Frye and Frank Shamrock and other coaches are talked about.

Remember tonight we get the 9 biggest bouts of last season. I hope you don't forget this because they might not repeat it again.

They run down some of the names you'll be seeing tonight. We finally go to a...

commercial break!

My thoughts on the first segment, is that I liked the brief rules explanation and hearing from some of the coaches but some of it seemed kind of TNA like when we heard about 9 bouts tonight over and over again. However, they did explain that they are different because they are a team based promotion so they have that over TNA already.

We're back and we're going to see the L.A. Anacondas and the Quad City Silverbacks. Bas Rutten and Pat Miletich are the coaches.

You know, they talk about going to the action and then talk some more. We are promised the action in 2 minutes, after a commercial Break!! but I've heard this before.

Thoughts on the segment. The good is that it gave you a bit of background on the 2 teams and their coaches and some of the fighters. The bad, is they kep promising action then delivered more talking.

I thought it was already 7:30 and it is only 7:20. Time is dragging and that's not something they should be proud of on this show.

Bas tells us that these are trained professionals and fighting outside the ring is not cool. What he's saying is if you try this at home, he'll kick your ass. Ok, that might not be what he said but it should've been.

In the first sequence of fights, Jimmy Lennon Jr. is doing the ring announcing, thumbs up.

Bout 1 is a lightweight bout
Representing Los Angeles: John David Shackelford
Vs.
Representing Quad City:
Bart Palaszewski

With a name like Palaszewski I'm glad for the copy and paste function. Shackelford was on the last EXC show

The IFL's website is moving slow and is plagued by server errors.

I've got no idea who the announcers are.

Round 1 is pretty much Palaszewski's round as he was in complete control. Looking at the Anacondas team page, it appears that Shackelford is off the team, so probably Bas kicked his ass.

Round 2: speaking of kicking ass Palaszewski is kicking some ass and he gets the TKO in round 2 and that gives Quad City a 1-0 lead. Herb Dean had apparently seen enough of this one.

Bout 2: Heavyweight bout
Representing Los Angeles:
Krzysztof "The Experiment" Soszynski
Vs.
Representing Quad City:
Ben Rothwell

Round 1: Krzysztof Soszynski is in trouble early. I'm hating names like Krzysztof Soszynski and want to go the Karl Stern route of calling him Bob Smith.

Krzysztof Soszynski doesn't make it out of round 1 and I'm happy for that because I got tired of pasting his name over and over. Ben Rothwell is so much easier to reproduce.

Winner: Ben Rothwell.
That's 2-0 for the Silverbacks.

Bout 3: Welterweight Bout
Representing Los Angeles: Mike "Quicksand" Pyle
Vs.
Representing Quad City:
Rory Markham

Another fight where the Anacondas fighter doesn't make it out of round 1, Bas' team is humbled by Miletich's team.

Pyle, like his former teammate Shackelford fought on EXC's Destiny show in February. Also like his former teammate, Pyle appears to no longer be on the Anacondas.

Winner: Rory Markham - 0:44 of Round 1 via KO.

Given this went 0:44 Bas probably looked at Mr. Pyle and he fled in shame before Bas could kill him.

The announcers call it a minor upset, I'll take their word for it despite not knowing who the hell the announcers are.

Commercial Break!!

Well, when they got to the action, it came fast and furious. Almost too fast for me to keep up with for recapping, but I am admittedly making it harder on myself.

The IFL's website problems are pissing me off. It is hard for me to get the information I want with all of the errors.

Oh, we're going to get comments from Bas on his team's humbling. Interesting, the commentary in the clips doesn't seem to match the commentary we just heard. However, that could just be my imagining something and not paying close attention to anything not said by Bas.

Bas says their new secret weapon is Chris "The Pollish Hammer" Horodecki well, since you said that it is no longer a secret. We get some clips and comments about Horodecki and then another commercial.

I'll give them this much, they want to introduce you to someone like Horodecki and so they introduce him, they give him his own segment and they don't immediately jump to Kevin Nash backstage with Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Austin Starr, Alex Shelley and Senshi. Russo heard Horodecki's nickname and supposedly got all happy for a bit. Once again, all legal matters can be sent to this address

Now the tide has turned, as it is 7:44 and the time has flown by I consider this a good thing.

Bout 4: Lightweight bout
Representing New York Pitbulls:

Erik Owings
Vs.
Representing Los Angeles: Chris Horodecki

Different announcers and different ring announcer and I've still got no idea on who they are. I'd like some uniformity.

Round 1: Horodecki is in control and we get a spinning backfist. Ok, these have to be clipped because I'm having a hard time believing I just saw four minutes. Horodecki wins the fight with just seconds left in the first.

Winner: Chris Horodecki

We go to another commercial Break!!
Hey, this is crazy, they tell you that you want to see this guy fight, and then they show him fight and it isn't disappointing. I'm thinking TNA should invent a time machine, rip off concepts from this show and go back to that first iMPACT on SpikeTV. They could learn something from this show.

We are told about the 4 teams that made it to the semifinals last season.

I provide links because I'm the man!
First we have the Toronto Dragons the Quad City Silverbacks the Los Angeles Anacondas and the Portland Wolfpack

Bout 5: Lightweight bout

Representing Los Angeles:
Chris Horodecki
Vs.
Representing Portland: Ryan "The Lion" Schultz

Round 1: It remained mostly on the feet and was probably Horodecki's round.

Round 2: Horodecki comes out strong in the second round and he has Schultz and he hits a right roundhouse kick and that was all she wrote.

Winner: Chris Horodecki - 0:24 of Round 2.

Bout 6: Welterweight Bout
Representing the Toronto Dragons: Keith Wisnewski (I'm just guessing at the spelling and I'm guessing my guessing is not even close)
Vs.
Representing the Quad City Silverbacks: Rory Markham

Round 1: It is up on the feet in the early stages. This was not Markham's round.

Ok, either these fights are clipped or the IFL has ripped a hole in the space-time fabric. At this point I'm willing to accept either theory as correct. The reason I say this is these rounds seem to move by quicker than 4 minutes.

Round 3? (I think they skipped round 2): Keith took this fight on 2 week's notice and Markham is probably wishing that he hadn't.

A shot from Markham came after the bell and Keith Wiziziziziziziznowowowowowowski couldn't answer the bell for the next so Markham won by TKO.

Commercial Break!!!
There was something about the way this was edited that I wasn't a big fan of.

Now we get a feature on the Shamrock brothers. You may have heard of one or both of them. The feature on Ken's Reno Lions centers on lightweight John Gunderson

I apologize for not being more specific, but I'm having to write and insert links all at once. But, we get brief features on Frank Shamrock's San Jose Razorclaws then Matt Lindland's Portland Wolfpack and Carlos Newton's Toronto Dragons.

They tell us that a rivalry is building between Portland and The Seattle Tigersharks. It is just like in the NBA but without all that pesky popularity and stuff. I don't see Wolfpac-Tigersharks taking its place along side Red Sox-Yankees, bears-Packers, Lakers-Celtics and Raiders-anyone on the list of great rivalries.

Now we get a feature on the new teams in the IFL for 2007. Chicago Red Bears Southern California Condors
and Tucson Scorpions and the Scorpions are coached by Don Frye~!

We're going to revisit the IFL championship, after the commercial Break!! Wolfpack Vs. Silverbacks

Bout 7: Heavyweight bout
Portland's Devin Cole Vs. Quad City's Ben Rothwell

Round 1: Ben Rothwell humbles Devin Cole sending him to his third consecutive loss in the IFL.

This was not the first fight, as they tell us that Rothwell's win puts the Silverbacks 1 win away from the championship. Rothwell is an impressive looking guy.

We'll find out who will win, after a commercial Break!!!

Hey, if you want to know what Dr. Phil thinks of Brittney Spears and Anna Nicole then stay tuned. Maybe this is only in my market but my immediate reaction is, who cares what Dr. Phil thinks about either of them?

Bout 8: Welterweight bout:
Portland's Chris "The Professor" Wilson Vs. Quad City's Rory Markham.

Round 1: This is a clash of strikers and Markham is undefeated in the IFL at this point. Wilson blasts Markham with a big right hand and it takes Markham off of his feet. Wilson then takes Markham back down to the mat. This round is definitely going to Wilson at this point. Another combination from Wilson has Markham in trouble, and it is over. Chris Wilson hands Markham his first IFL loss.

We head to another commercial Break!!!

"This is the night sports fans will be talking about forever, the night MMA was shown for the first time on Network TV." I'll bet a billion dollars its not.

Coming up next, "The fight to end all fights". Lets hope not, because if it ends all fights there won't be a show next week, nor any events from UFC or Pride or EXC or anyone else. So I hope that this is false advertising, I don't want to live in a world without fights.

We'll find out if fights as we know them have ended or not after we take another Commercial Break!!!

Bout 9: Lightweight Bout:
Representing Portland: Ryan Schultz Vs.
Representing Quad City: Bart Palaszewski

Ok, in a WCW like moment before this fight starts, we've got a video package that makes you think it all came down to this fight to decide the championship. When the fight starts we have the commentators talking about how Quad City is up 2 bouts to 0 and is looking to clinch. If I were overseeing this show, you'd not see things like this. Rerecord the commentary if you want it to seem like this was the fight to decide a split and close match.

We are also told that in 2007 a coin flip decides which coach gets to pick the bout order.

Round 1: Ryan Schultz did real well for himself against Palaszewski.

We waste no time heading to round 2. Kind of a cool thing in the middle of the round, the commentary ceases for a bit and you hear from the cornermen shouting instructions. Schultz keeps the fight on the ground and is up 2 rounds to nothing.

Before round 3 we are reminded that we are watching My Network TV, Home of the International Fight League. Mew, the bell ringing made me think I was watching Raw.

Round 3: The announcers talk about how Palaszewski needs to do something big here, and I am inclined to agree. They wind up in the clinch but don't do much so the ref restarts. Hey, remember how I just wrote that Palaszewski needed to do something huge and damaging in this round? Well, if you don't remember you can go back and read, it is still there. Anyway, he did just that using a big right to KTFO Ryan Schultz.

Next week, we are going to see why Bas Rutten's Anacondas didn't make the finals and we get 10 more bouts. That ends the show.

My thoughts: There was some good and some bad on this show. They put over Chris Horodecki, Ben Rothwell, Bart Palaszewski and Rory Markham as names to know and showed you why you need to know them. The fights were edited in a way that made them seem faster paced than they realistically probably were, but I'm not a fan of them editing out entire rounds.

The bad stuff like the hype package for the final match that was immediately spoiled by the commentary are minor things. Also, don't promise us action and then start with more talking. I would've liked to have seen more on the fighters themselves, and perhaps how they got associated with each team. This may have been explained but I'm curious as to if the coaches chose the fighters or how they were assigned as I'm not sure.

Overall, I was entertained by the show and will be back next week to watch and recap it. I think this show was more entertaining than my first recap of it. However, I wanted to go in knowing as little about each of these teams and fighters as possible to see how much was explained. I'll definitely do some studying on my own before next week.