The following is Luis Cruz's post-IFL show report. Cruz attended the event live and offers the following notes:
Live Notes
Aside from two of the 10 fights being fought at a slow pace, this was a tremendous night of action for the IFL. The crowd in the Mohegan Sun was hot all night in a packed house. Renzo was by large the crowd favorite all night.
Jamal Patterson appeared to tire after the opening round in which he had a very good round. He suffered his first defeat in his very young MMA career to Reese Andy.
The crowd booed in disapproval for two close decisions including their favorite fighter, Renzo Gracie. Gracie clearly controlled the first round and even had a guillotine attempt in which he almost locked it in but Newton managed to escape before he could.
In round 2 It was back and forth. At one point Newton looked to lock in an armbar and almost did so. Gracie had a beautiful reversal and was able to perform an almost picture perfect fireman carry to escape and then got in Newton’s guard. This was a close round but the crowd obviously felt Newton won.
Round 3 seen Newton control the entire round and land some good strikes while they were on their feet.
When the decision was announced as a Split Decision, Renzo shook his finger no and pointed towards Carlos Newton to signify him as the winner. When the announcer said Gracie had won, the crowd booed loudly and Gracie seemed as though he did not want to celebrate. Gracie then said in the post fight interview he felt he won their first meeting a few years ago but Newton got the decision. He mentions Newton hoisting him up after that fight and said he would love to return the favor and did so as he hoisted Newton on his shoulders and carried him around the ring in a show of great sportsmanship.
Mike Whitehead also took home a disputed decision against Krysztof Sosynski in which the crowd booed throughout Whitehead’s post fight interview.
Ryan Schultz was taken out on a stretcher for precautionary reasons after his KO loss to Palaszewski. He was announced as being ok later on.
Awards
Submission of the night- Mike Ciesnolevicz
Knockout of the night- Ben Rothwell
Fight of the Night- Bart Palaszewski vs Ryan Schultz
Quickest Finish- Chris Wilson
MVP of the Night- Bart Palaszewski, wins trip to Sandals
The Super Fights will air on FSN Sunday December 31st at 9pm ET. The Team Championship Finals will air on a future telecast.
We'll follow up tomorrow with a photo report, hundreds of pictures from the event, including the pre-fight weigh-ins, celebrities in attendance, live action fight photos, and more!
DISCUSS THIS NEWS IN THE MMANEWS.COM FORUMS >>
