It’s official. Let us all give the International Fight League a farewell. After over two years of promoting mixed martial arts events across the United States, the IFL will indeed cease operations at the end of the month according to IFL Senior VP Joe Favorito.
From an email sent out today:
I apologize for this mass email but I wanted to take a second to let you know that as of July 31 my role at the IFL will be no more as the company goes into its final stage of being sold and/or closed down. We are very proud of what we did here in just over two years, building a brand from nothing into something that people in the industry and outside of the industry actually noticed, and I enjoyed working with so many different people and helped tell some great stories. At the end of the day sometimes the finances don’t make sense, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.
Various sources are now reporting that the UFC has indeed purchased the IFL, or some assets from it. Not surprising at all considering the deal was most likely finalized this past weekend when the UFC mentioned the IFL multiple times throughout last Saturday's Spike TV broadcast as well as IFL footage being used to promote new acquisition Reese Andy.
While the IFL received it’s fair share of criticism during it’s stint and likely ended up failing for more reasons than one, I’m not really going to dive into all of the negative stuff. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know the first thing about running an MMA promotion. However I will say that what the IFL accomplished over the last few years will certainly have an impact on the sport for years to come.
Once again, heavyweight contender Heath Herring discusses his upcoming bout against former professional wrestler turned mixed martial artist Brock Lesnar at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy on August 9th in the above video courtesy of Raw Vegas. Herring touches on a number of things including his training regimen and a potential rematch with Fedor Emelianenko down the road. His coaches also talk about what they’ve found while watching tape on Lesnar as well.
Takanori Gomi. Photo property of PRIDE FC Worldwide.
DEEP lightweight champion Sung Hwan Pang has been tapped to take on former PRIDE title holder Takanori Gomi at World Victory Road’s scheduled "Sengoku IV" show on August 24th in Japan. The promotion officially announced the bout earlier today.
Gomi returned to action after a year of inactivity in March, defeating Duane Ludwig due to a cut at the first-ever “Sengoku” event. His opponent, Pang, is a winner of his last five bouts. He most recently scored a first-round knockout of Kazunori Yokota at DEEP’s “35th Impact” show in May.
The organization also announced a quartet of fights that will take place as part of their inaugural lightweight grand prix tournament. The previously aforementioned Yokota will take on Bojan Kosednar, who was recently knocked out by Paul Daley two weeks ago. The three other bouts include IFL lightweight champion Ryan Schultz vs. Mizuto Hirota, PRIDE veteran Clay French vs. Satoru Kitaoka, and Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Rodrigo Damm. Ludwig was advertised for the tourney but will not compete due to prior commitments.
The current card for the event is as follows:
Takanori Gomi vs. Sung Hwan Pang
Frank Trigg vs. Makoto Takimoto
Peter Graham vs. Moise Rimbon
Ryan Schultz vs. Mizuto Hirota
Clay French vs. Satoru Kitaoka
Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Rodrigo Damm
Kazunori Yokota vs. Bojan Kosednar
Kurt Pellegrino. Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
A lightweight bout between former divisional contenders and skilled grapplers Kurt Pellegrino and Thiago Tavares has been announced along with an additional preliminary fights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s September venture into Atlanta, Georgia.
The organization confirmed the bouts earlier today.
Pellegrino is coming off of a devastating submission loss to “Ultimate Fighter 5” winner Nate Diaz at UFC Fight Night 13 in a bout that Pellegrino dominated up until the second round. Tavares established himself a dangerous lightweight contender following a surprising submission win over Jason Black last year but has since lost two out of his last three bouts. Most recently, Tavares was knocked out by Matt Wiman at UFC 85: Bedlam last month.
The other previously rumored bouts announced today included Ryo Chonan vs. Roan Carneiro, Dong-Hyun Kim vs. Matt Brown, and Tim Boetsch vs. James Lee.
Javier Vasquez. Snapshot courtesy of ProElite.com.
EliteXC officials are reportedly attempting to lure longtime veteran Javier “Showtime” Vasquez to replace an injured Malaipet Sitprapom in a planned swing bout against David Douglas that would air, time-permitting, on the CBS broadcast of this weekend’s “Unfinished Business” show.
The news comes from Sam Caplan of Five Ounces of Pain. No indication has been made as of yet concerning a decision by EliteXC or Vasquez. The 31-year-old King of the Cage veteran announced his retirement last year after two successful comeback appearances under the EliteXC banner. Vasquez has been working part-time with Sherdog.com.
In other EliteXC news, Caplan is also reporting through the management team of Dave Herman that the undefeated light heavyweight prospect is expected to return to action at a planned ShoXC event on September 26th. A potential opponent for Herman currently remains unknown.
Herman last stopped veteran Ron Waterman with strikes at EliteXC’s “Return of the King” event in June. Prior to that, he earned a third-round TKO of American Top Team product Mario Rinaldi in February. Herman was reportedly in line to challenge Antonio Silva for the vacant EliteXC heavyweight title this weekend but prior commitments prevented him from accepting the title shot.
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Kimbo vs Ray Mercer live June 23rd! this fight is gonne be the real deal! All eyes are on the upcoming CFFC 5 event as "Merciless" Ray Mercer takes his superior boxing skills into the Mix Martial Arts cage to fight kimbo.
