MMAPredictions

Last night the IFL held IFL: New Blood New Battles in front of a total attendance of 4,530 attendees at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut and three title belts were on the line, so it’s time to go over how predictable the fights were according to you all, the savvy predictors on MMAPredictions.com. If you’d like to listen to this breakdown instead of read it, you can listen to the 4 minute mp3 version here.

Here is a snapshot of how our predictors performed here on MMAPredictions.com for the event overall, which you can see by going to the card’s detailed results page.

• 213 MMAPredictions users predicted on tonight’s card.
• With just four fights present on MMAPredictions of the nine total that took place, it was not too hard for folks to guess all four correctly. I have not run the numbers exactly so I can’t say exactly how many folks guessed all the fights correctly but there’s nothing terribly revealing about getting 4/4 on this event.
• The average of all our users’ prediction accuracies for the card’s 4 fights on MMAPredictions was 54.7% making the fights on MMAPredictions this time around of average predictability. Since MMAPredictions’ inception, the average prediction accuracy across all fight cards is in the low fifties.

Dan Miller completes the kneebar on Ryan McGivern. Photo courtesy IFL.

Most easily-predicted fight outcome: Roy Nelson’s victory over Brad Imes. Eighty-eight percent knew that Imes was not tough enough to put an end to Nelson’s undefeated MMA record.

Most surprising fight outcome: Dan Miller’s victory over Ryan McGivern was a surprise to sixty-eight percent of our predictors here on the site.

The IFL’s next scheduled event is set for August 15 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., when it will break in its new six-sided ring surface, dubbed “The Hex.”

Next up on MMAPredictions.com is the Sengoku II which takes place in Japan this Sunday. Get your picks in now, because if they happen in Japan on Sunday, they’re basically taking place on Saturday for those of us in North America!

- Caleb

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Today the IFL held a conference call with the press to announce several changes to its initial plans for 2008. First and most visible will be a new fighting enclosure, called The Hex, which is a six-sided boxing ring. The Hex is being built by Throwdown in Las Vegas and fighters will have an opportunity to train on it before their next IFL fight.

According to IFL CEO Jay Larkin:

From a production and live event standpoint, the ring has proven to be the most fan and media friendly environment, as well as providing the safest possible environment for our athletes. The Hex allows for the larger surface that is utilized in other MMA organizations while still retaining the advantages we have enjoyed with the ring.

Also of note is that the next IFL event will be in August, despite the IFL having booked a Las Vegas venue for June 27th. No IFL fights will take place after the IFL’s next event, IFL New Blood, New Battles on May 16th at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut until August. Fights for the August show will be announced in June.

Larkin addressed whether the IFL has been for sale by saying, “everything is for sale… Microsoft is for sale, the hot dog cart outside our office is for sale… We remain open to offers that make sense for the company.”

Another theme in the conversation was that of cross promotion. Larkin and IFL Director of Fight Operations Bas Rutten pointed out that IFL fighters Rory Markham and Mark Miller will be taking part in Adrenaline MMA’s upcoming debut show in June. Larkin stressed that the IFL is always open to cross promote with anyone, including the UFC although he said he does not see interest from the UFC in the matter.

Larkin stated that he had had conversations with EliteXC president Gary Shaw about loaning Jay Hieron to EliteXC and was ready to do so but Hieron had an upcoming fight obligation with the IFL at the time.

- Caleb

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Fabricio “Morango” Camoes has badly broken a toe in preparation for his fight against Jim Miller and will not be fighting on the May 16th IFL New Blood New Battles.

The news was revealed by Morango’s training partner Xande Ribeiro yesterday during a visit to the University of Jiu-Jitsu by MMAPredictions. UNIJJ is run by Xande and his brother Saulo Ribeiro. Xande related that a stray kick to sparring partner and UFC fighter Diego Sanchez’s elbow during a training session resulted in two separate breaks to Morango’s second toe and that the fight is indeed not a possibility for Camoes anymore.

No news yet from the IFL on who will replace Morango to fight Miller, who is coming off a victory over IFL staple Bart Palaszewski.

- Caleb

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Shad Lierly and Wagnney Fabiano at the weigh-ins. Photo courtesy IFL.

The International Fight League will hold its second event of 2008, IFL: New Blood, New Battles tonight in New Jersey.

Chris Horodecki, the organization’s premier lightweight, will be back in action in his first match since his first career loss. Back in December Horodecki was upset by Ryan Schultz at the IFL Grand Prix Finals.

Vladimir Matyushenko, the Belorussian wrestler with a MMA career spanning back to 1997, will take on Renzo Gracie-trained Jamal Patterson in a title defense.

Keep an eye on Jay Hieron, the wrestler from New York who now trains at Randy Couture’s gym in Las Vegas to keep his winning streak alive against Army veteran Mark Miller.

Lots of other great fights on the card, including the return of Bart Palaszewski and Ultimate Fighter veteran Alex Schoenauer.

The fights will be televised this evening on HDNet at 8:30 p.m. ET, immediately following “Inside MMA.”

- Caleb

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Amidst a furious news cycle this week in the world of mixed martial arts, the International Fight League held its IFL - Las Vegas show. At the last minute the event’s billing was changed from including Team Xtreme Couture to Team Tompkins due to a court injunction prohibiting the use of Couture’s name. However Randy Couture’s gym claims that the IFL had chosen fighters that were not of Randy’s gym in any case.

Leopoldo Serao unsuccessfully attempts a rear naked choke on Josh Haynes. Photo courtesy IFL.

Here is how our predictors performed here on MMAPredictions for tonight’s event, which you can see by going to the card’s detailed results page.

• 254 MMAPredictions users predicted on tonight’s card.
• Several folks here on the site came close and just missed one fight, but not one user guessed all seven fights correctly.
• The average of all our users’ prediction accuracies for the card’s seven fights on MMAPredictions was 46.9%, making this card less predictable than most fight cards here on the site, which tend to be in the low fifties.

Most easily-predicted fight outcome: Eighty-seven percent of our predictors correctly guessed that the previously undefeated Roy Nelson would maintain his streak against Fabiano Scherner, allowing him to retain his heavyweight belt with a victory just past the halfway mark of the first round.

Most surprising fight outcome: Ryan McGivern’s victory over Matt Horwich surprised just about everyone. Only 12% predicted that McGivern would win, whose performance earned him the judges’ approval after five rounds of action.

Next up on MMAPredictions is UFC 82 which will feature Dan Henderson against Anderson Silva!

- Caleb

Win a copy of Chuck Liddell’s new book by predicting UFC 82! Details here!

Competitors in the IFL’s 185 lb championship.

The International Fight League, which held its first MMA event in April 2006, has gone through major changes since its inception and on Friday February 29th holds its first show of 2008, IFL - Las Vegas. The evening will mark a new chapter in the IFL’s mixed martial arts promotion as the team concept from which the IFL was born has been abandoned, and their Las Vegas show is the first time they will promote an MMA show based on training camps going up against one another as opposed to teams.

Fights to keep an eye on:

• Matt Horwich, who is to be married the following day in Las Vegas, takes on Ryan McGivern (Bettendorf, Iowa), who fights out of Miletich Fighting Systems.
• Ryan Schultz and John Gunderson will vie for the 155 lb belt. Schultz is the current champion after dethroning Chris Hordecki in December at the IFL Grand Prix Finals.
• Heavyweight Roy Nelson will defend his heavyweight title against Oregon’s Fabiano Scherner

The fights will be broadcast live on HDNet.

Make sure you gets your predictions in for the IFL show! You can be taken to the page to make your predictions by clicking on the images above.

- Caleb

Win a copy of Chuck Liddell’s new book by predicting UFC 82! Details here!

This time around on MMAPredictions Radio you will hear from Ryan Schultz, who became the International Fight League’s new lightweight Grand Prix Champion after surprising 93% of all predictors here on MMAPredictions.com when he scored a technical knockout over Chris Horodecki at the 2007 IFL Grand Prix Finals.

Listen in and hear what Ryan Schultz had to say about who he believes most responsible for the upset victory, learn how Matt Lindland helped get Schultz into the MMA fight game, and what he thinks he could have done better in his star performance.

Click here to listen to the 10 minute mp3!

If you‘d like to be heard on the program, it’s easy!

1. Dial (877) 247-4MMA .
2. Leave a brief, intelligible comment that we can integrate into our next show.
3. Hang up

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- Caleb

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Ryan Schultz delivering Chris Horodecki his first loss in mixed martial arts. Photo courtesy IFL

Ryan Schultz was considered an underdog to beat Chris Horodecki last Saturday at the 2007 IFL Grand Prix Finals by nearly everyone. After all, he received the word that he was to fight Horodecki on December fourteenth, just two weeks prior to the encounter. And his opponent was none other than the IFL’s promotional centerpiece, an undefeated terror with eleven wins behind him at the young age of twenty. Here on MMAPredictions.com, just seven percent of our users predicted Schultz would win.

The former University of Nebraska wrestler met with the mixed martial arts media today to discuss his win, which came in just under three minutes into the first round.

“I pretty much did exactly what I wanted to do in that fight. I don’t think there was too much I could’ve done better, maybe a better double leg [takedown]… if you watch it I’m not real deep on it at all. As far as on the ground, I did exactly what I wanted to do: postured up, controlled his hands, struck to the head and body…”

Despite the commanding performance, Schultz in no way underestimated Horodecki prior to the fight, saying “[Horodecki]’s tough, man, you definitely know you’re in a fight with him. He’s not real shakable. He stays pretty confident and he’s hard to rattle. I think his ground game is his weak part and that was my goal - to put him on his back and see what he could do.”

According to Schultz, Horodecki did not have much to say after the fight. “He didn’t say a whole lot, he just said, ‘You earned it’… I said, ‘Okay that puts us at 1-1, we’ll finish this little streak out’.”

The next time the two meet will Horodecki receive the same 93% of MMAPredictions users’ faith? Not likely.

If you’re interested in more about the new IFL Lightweight Grand Prix champion, tune in to the next episode of MMAPredictions Radio, which will be released this weekend. We’ll include our conversation with Schultz from yesterday’s conference call. Call and leave us a message about your thoughts about the end of 2007 MMA extravaganza or share any predictions for 2008, and we may include it on the show!

- Caleb

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The International Fight League announced today that Shannon Knapp’s responsibilities with the New York City-based mixed martial arts promotion has now expanded beyond her prior broadcasting role to being the league’s Director of Fighter Relations. Her goal will be to grow and enhance the IFL brand in the competitive mixed martial arts industry through relationships with fighters, managers, and other business partners.

According to Jay Larkin, the IFL CEO:

“Shannon is a significant part of the IFL. There are few individuals who have the knowledge and fluency in MMA that she possesses. She has accomplished a great deal for the sport, and we are elated to be able to give her this opportunity to expand her duties. She is a great role model for women in sports management.”

The IFL also cited her previous work experience with Bas Rutten and Randy Couture in making the decision to promote her. Shannon Knapp is also a self-defense instructor.

- Caleb

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The IFL announced that 2008 would see a change in strategy for the team-based mixed martial arts league. The organization, which began producing events in April 2006, has recently made public its intentions to revamp and change its focus away from a team-based league to a place where fight camps can compete amongst themselves. While the IFL will still have its own roster of approximately nine camps, including the familiar groups under Renzo Gracie and Matt Lindland, there will be no more New York Pitbulls or Portland Wolfpack, per se.

The IFL has also stated that it will not head out on the road to as many different cities in the future. Previously, its strategy was to head to markets where larger MMA promoters did not visit in an attempt to capitalize on the hunger among those areas’ local fans’ hunger for live MMA. However transporting the league’s staff, fighters, and production crew to almost ten different cities in 2007 proved to be an expensive endeavor.

It appears that one of the markets the IFL will concentrate on in 2008 will be Las Vegas. Currently, there are three dates that the IFL has requested to hold events at the Orleans Arena, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission:

• February 29th
• June 27th
• October 17th

The Orleans Arena opened in 2003 and is the home of the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers professional hockey team. It is a mid-sized venue with 5,736 permanent seats.

It may be worth noting that the UFC went through the same evolutionary process in its formative days. As can be seen on the UFC Event Map up until Zuffa LLC bought the UFC, the UFC was an unprofitable traveling road show which visited places like Brazil, Japan, and Birmingham, Alabama. In the 54 Zuffa Pay Per View events scheduled since the first Zuffa-run event at UFC 30, 26 (48%) have taken place in Las Vegas, piggybacking on the city’s historic reputation for hosting larger-than-life fight action and keeping costs low at the same time.

Can the IFL’s strategy stabilize the IFL, whose stock price hovers at fourteen cents at the time of this writing? We have seen many promoters attempt to carve out their own piece of the MMA fan’s attention, and 2008 may be a year when we see some perish in the effort.

- Caleb

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