New York, New Champs
Scott Holmes Sep 21, 2007
HOLLYWOOD, Fla., Sept. 20 -- It was nearly the Quad Cities Comeback
Thursday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Instead,
the dogs had their day.
Taking the first two fights in the best-of-five International Fight League World Championship finals, the New York Pitbulls appeared ready to dethrone the defending champion Quad Cities Silverbacks.
However the Pat Miletich
(Pictures)-led squad refused to go
quietly, rallying to tie at two wins apiece and leaving the team
title in the balance when light heavyweights Mike Ciesnolevicz
(Pictures) and Andre Gusmao (Pictures) met in the deciding bout.
A rematch of an earlier season clash that saw the Brazilian win decisively, Gusmao dispatched Ciesnolevicz in just 53 seconds with a knockout from a glancing knee in the clinch, prompting his now champion New York teammates to storm the ring in front of roughly 3,470 fans.
Said New York head coach Renzo Gracie (Pictures) on his team's title-winning performance: "I'm very glad that we started as losers and became champion. That's what jiu-jitsu is all about."
The Pitbulls, not considered one of the favorites to win the IFL team title at the start of the season, showed that they were very motivated as well as passionate about the win.
Probably the only thing that would have been more impressive than the Silverbacks winning three fights in a row to claim their second consecutive IFL crown would have been Gracie taking a team that didn't win a match last year and coaching this crew through an undefeated season.
And that's exactly what happened.
A welterweight clash started off the finals as Delson Heleno (Pictures) took on a very game Silverbacks replacement fighter, Jake Ellenberger (Pictures). Stepping in for Quad Cities stalwart Rory Markham (Pictures), Ellenberger matched the strong Brazilian in the opening round, mixing dirty boxing with body blows as the two went toe-to-toe.
In the second period Heleno mounted Ellenberger, who reversed position only to find himself in a near ankle lock. Heleno smoothly transitioned into an armbar to finish the fight with 15 seconds remaining in the round.
The Silverbacks then sent in their lightweight star Bart Palaszewski (Pictures) to face Lithuanian Deividas Taurosevicius (Pictures). This fight was evenly matched and both gave as good as they got until Taurosevicius went for an armbar in the second round that had Palaszewski wincing in pain.
Thinking he had injured his opponent's arm, Taurosevicius released the hold and in doing so accidentally caught "Bartimus" in the eye with a toe. Palaszewski turned away to protect himself and the referee stepped in to call a stop to the fight at 1:30 of round two.
The whole sequence took just moments and in the scrum it appeared that Palaszewski tapped out, but replays showed that it was the errant toe that got him.
"What happened was he did lock in the armbar," Palaszewski said afterwards. "As soon as he locked it I turned my arm and tried to push on his ass. As soon as I pushed on his ass, he said to the ref that he'd broke my arm."
Palaszewski then showed everyone his arm was fine by picking up his drink a few times.
Taurosevicius confirmed that he thought he had broken the arm since he heard it pop. To be fair, Taurosevicius might have known that Miletich-trained fighters sometimes don't know when they do have broken arms (see Tim Sylvia (Pictures)) but he did appear to be fine and unfortunately it might have been a costly early stoppage.
With the Pitbulls up 2-0, it looked like the Silverbacks repeat hopes might be over.
Next up was the most anticipated fight of the night as New York rolled out late replacement Ricco Rodriguez (Pictures) to take on the best heavyweight in the IFL, Ben Rothwell (Pictures).
Rothwell has flat out owned the heavyweight division and this was going to be a big fight for both men. Rodriguez made his intentions known early as he took repeated takedown shots, however Rothwell did a fine job of stopping cold the attempts.
The Silverbacks' heavyweight got the better of the punching exchanges throughout the fight and frustrated Rodriguez when he held him down in the corners. Rodriguez, a former UFC heavyweight champion, had several guillotine attempts, including one that looked pretty deep, but Rothwell had no problem getting out.
Rothwell was tentative to let his hands go all night thanks to the threat of Rodriguez's takedowns. Frustrated with the fight, especially after eating a few punches towards the end of the 12-minute clash, Rodriguez appeared to spit at Rothwell.
Gracie joked that the "spit" was a byproduct of Rodriguez's sweat propelled into the air by heavy breathing. When asked about the incident, Rodriguez said he apologized to Rothwell.
"I look up to Pat Miletich (Pictures)," the heavyweight said. "You know I've had some inner-demons with those guys cause you know, Tim taking away my belt."
With the unanimous decision win, Rothwell remained undefeated in the IFL, and more importantly for his team at the time, kept alive the possibility of a Silverbacks' comeback.
"Tonight's win was a big deal for me," Rothwell said. "I believe Ricco is a world class opponent. He came out in shape and went three hard rounds. I hope I represented the IFL, the Silverbacks, [and] Pat Miletich (Pictures) well tonight. You know it feels good but at the same time I feel like I lost tonight watching three of my comrades fall."
Following that fight was the rematch between Ryan McGivern (Pictures) and Fabio Leopoldo (Pictures). These two middleweight ground warriors decided to keep things on their feet and McGivern took it to Leopoldo with several nasty uppercuts.
McGivern avenged his loss to Leopoldo with an uppercut that made the Brazilian lower his head. The Silverbacks' middleweight followed up by immediately hitting Leopoldo with a straight punch that dropped him for good at 1:35 of round two.
The championship ring engraver had to hold off on his Pitbulls etchings as the Silverbacks evened it up 2-2. However Gusmao's quick win ended any title hopes for Quad Cities.
Gracie's team exploded in a frenzied celebration afterwards, piling on each other in the ring. The lightweight Taurosevicius, who replaced an injured Erik Owings (Pictures) in August's semifinals, and Gracie were both thrown up on some shoulders and paraded around the ring.
Preliminary results
Ryan Schultz (Pictures) def. Aaron Riley (Pictures) unanimous decision 3R
Travis Cox (Pictures) No Contest Brad Blackburn (Pictures) (unintentional knee to head of downed opponent) 2:32 R1
Rolles Gracie (Pictures) def. Sam Holloway (Pictures) submission (rear-naked choke) 1:49 R1
Jamal Patterson (Pictures) def. Chris Baten (Pictures) submission (choke) 0:56 R1
Taking the first two fights in the best-of-five International Fight League World Championship finals, the New York Pitbulls appeared ready to dethrone the defending champion Quad Cities Silverbacks.
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A rematch of an earlier season clash that saw the Brazilian win decisively, Gusmao dispatched Ciesnolevicz in just 53 seconds with a knockout from a glancing knee in the clinch, prompting his now champion New York teammates to storm the ring in front of roughly 3,470 fans.
At the post-fight press conference, the celebration continued as
the Pitbulls sprayed the media room with champagne.
Said New York head coach Renzo Gracie (Pictures) on his team's title-winning performance: "I'm very glad that we started as losers and became champion. That's what jiu-jitsu is all about."
The Pitbulls, not considered one of the favorites to win the IFL team title at the start of the season, showed that they were very motivated as well as passionate about the win.
Probably the only thing that would have been more impressive than the Silverbacks winning three fights in a row to claim their second consecutive IFL crown would have been Gracie taking a team that didn't win a match last year and coaching this crew through an undefeated season.
And that's exactly what happened.
A welterweight clash started off the finals as Delson Heleno (Pictures) took on a very game Silverbacks replacement fighter, Jake Ellenberger (Pictures). Stepping in for Quad Cities stalwart Rory Markham (Pictures), Ellenberger matched the strong Brazilian in the opening round, mixing dirty boxing with body blows as the two went toe-to-toe.
In the second period Heleno mounted Ellenberger, who reversed position only to find himself in a near ankle lock. Heleno smoothly transitioned into an armbar to finish the fight with 15 seconds remaining in the round.
The Silverbacks then sent in their lightweight star Bart Palaszewski (Pictures) to face Lithuanian Deividas Taurosevicius (Pictures). This fight was evenly matched and both gave as good as they got until Taurosevicius went for an armbar in the second round that had Palaszewski wincing in pain.
Thinking he had injured his opponent's arm, Taurosevicius released the hold and in doing so accidentally caught "Bartimus" in the eye with a toe. Palaszewski turned away to protect himself and the referee stepped in to call a stop to the fight at 1:30 of round two.
The whole sequence took just moments and in the scrum it appeared that Palaszewski tapped out, but replays showed that it was the errant toe that got him.
"What happened was he did lock in the armbar," Palaszewski said afterwards. "As soon as he locked it I turned my arm and tried to push on his ass. As soon as I pushed on his ass, he said to the ref that he'd broke my arm."
Palaszewski then showed everyone his arm was fine by picking up his drink a few times.
Taurosevicius confirmed that he thought he had broken the arm since he heard it pop. To be fair, Taurosevicius might have known that Miletich-trained fighters sometimes don't know when they do have broken arms (see Tim Sylvia (Pictures)) but he did appear to be fine and unfortunately it might have been a costly early stoppage.
With the Pitbulls up 2-0, it looked like the Silverbacks repeat hopes might be over.
Next up was the most anticipated fight of the night as New York rolled out late replacement Ricco Rodriguez (Pictures) to take on the best heavyweight in the IFL, Ben Rothwell (Pictures).
Rothwell has flat out owned the heavyweight division and this was going to be a big fight for both men. Rodriguez made his intentions known early as he took repeated takedown shots, however Rothwell did a fine job of stopping cold the attempts.
The Silverbacks' heavyweight got the better of the punching exchanges throughout the fight and frustrated Rodriguez when he held him down in the corners. Rodriguez, a former UFC heavyweight champion, had several guillotine attempts, including one that looked pretty deep, but Rothwell had no problem getting out.
Rothwell was tentative to let his hands go all night thanks to the threat of Rodriguez's takedowns. Frustrated with the fight, especially after eating a few punches towards the end of the 12-minute clash, Rodriguez appeared to spit at Rothwell.
Gracie joked that the "spit" was a byproduct of Rodriguez's sweat propelled into the air by heavy breathing. When asked about the incident, Rodriguez said he apologized to Rothwell.
"I look up to Pat Miletich (Pictures)," the heavyweight said. "You know I've had some inner-demons with those guys cause you know, Tim taking away my belt."
With the unanimous decision win, Rothwell remained undefeated in the IFL, and more importantly for his team at the time, kept alive the possibility of a Silverbacks' comeback.
"Tonight's win was a big deal for me," Rothwell said. "I believe Ricco is a world class opponent. He came out in shape and went three hard rounds. I hope I represented the IFL, the Silverbacks, [and] Pat Miletich (Pictures) well tonight. You know it feels good but at the same time I feel like I lost tonight watching three of my comrades fall."
Following that fight was the rematch between Ryan McGivern (Pictures) and Fabio Leopoldo (Pictures). These two middleweight ground warriors decided to keep things on their feet and McGivern took it to Leopoldo with several nasty uppercuts.
McGivern avenged his loss to Leopoldo with an uppercut that made the Brazilian lower his head. The Silverbacks' middleweight followed up by immediately hitting Leopoldo with a straight punch that dropped him for good at 1:35 of round two.
The championship ring engraver had to hold off on his Pitbulls etchings as the Silverbacks evened it up 2-2. However Gusmao's quick win ended any title hopes for Quad Cities.
Gracie's team exploded in a frenzied celebration afterwards, piling on each other in the ring. The lightweight Taurosevicius, who replaced an injured Erik Owings (Pictures) in August's semifinals, and Gracie were both thrown up on some shoulders and paraded around the ring.
Preliminary results
Ryan Schultz (Pictures) def. Aaron Riley (Pictures) unanimous decision 3R
Travis Cox (Pictures) No Contest Brad Blackburn (Pictures) (unintentional knee to head of downed opponent) 2:32 R1
Rolles Gracie (Pictures) def. Sam Holloway (Pictures) submission (rear-naked choke) 1:49 R1
Jamal Patterson (Pictures) def. Chris Baten (Pictures) submission (choke) 0:56 R1
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