Report from the IFL World Team Championships (Spoilers)
Submitted by Brian Cantor on Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 1:09 PM EST





When Renzo Gracie entered the ring for his Superfight at Friday's International Fight League show at the Mohegan Sun Arena, he easily received the most positive reaction of the night. But when his hand was raised in split-decision victory over Carlos Newton, the win drew a negative reaction equal in magnitude to the chorus of cheers that greeted him.

The main-event fight between Gracie and Newton, despite its slow-pace and lack of aggressive offense, never lost the crowd's interest. But the crowd reacted quite negatively when Gracie was given a 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 split decision victory it felt Newton deserved.

While the Gracie-Newton fight was the feature attraction for many fans in attendance, the evening was truly about IFL's World Team Championship Finals, which featured five fights—one in each weight class—between the league's top two teams. Whichever team won at least three would be crowned IFL World Champions.

That honor went to the Pat Miletich-coached Silverbacks, who cruised to victory over Matt Lindland's Wolfpack in four of the five fights.

The finals opened with a Light Heavyweight bout between Mike Ciesnolevicz of the Silverbacks and Aaron Stark of the Wolfpack. The fight came to an end at 1:03 of the third round when Ciesnolevicz forced a referee stoppage due to a guillotine choke.

Silverbacks Heavyweight Ben Rothwell upped his team's win count to two with a vicious first-round knockout victory over Devin Cole. The high kick, which came at 3:16 of the first round, earned Rothwell a bonus for executing the night's best knockout.

If the next fight, a Lightweight battle between Bart Palaszewski of the Silverbacks and Ryan Schultz of the Wolfpack that received fight of the night honors from the IFL, had gone to decision, Schultz, whose explosive athleticism enabled him to land far more shots, would have won and kept his team alive. But Palaszewski came through in the clutch by knocking his opponent out with a punch to the chin at 2:16 of Round Three. The devastating blow left Schultz in need of a stretcher to exit the ring; it also secured the championship rings for Miletich's Silverbacks.

But the Finals action was not over—even though the Wolfpack were unable win the Championship, their remaining two fighters still had the opportunity to leave their mark. The team split the final two bouts, losing the first between Middleweights Ryan McGivern (Silverbacks) and Matt Horwich (Wolfpack) via decision but winning the second, in which Wolfpack Welterweight Chris Wilson scored a TKO victory over Rory Markham at 2:14 of a first round that saw Wilson land a series of vicious strikes.

The show also featured four preliminary bouts, dubbed "Intraleague Superfights," that featured fighters from other IFL teams.

Erik Owings (Pitbulls) opened things up with a victory over Ed West (Scorpions) via a unanimous decision. Owings' teammate Andre Gusmao then scored a unanimous decision of his own in a vicious, crowd-pleasing slugfest with Brent Beauparlant of the Dragons. Jamal Patterson, also of the Pitbulls, was not so lucky—he lost to Reese Andy of the Tiger Sharks via TKO at 3:24 of the second round. Mike Whitehead (Scorpions) defeated Krzysztof Soszynski (Anacondas) via unanimous decision in the final Superfight of the evening.

Prior to the event, the IFL held a press conference to introduce new coaches, including popular PRIDE fighter Dan Henderson. During the conference, the IFL's Kurt Otto cited the depth of the promotion's roster as an argument for calling the International Fight League the top company in the mixed martial arts industry.

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