Mohegan Sun is a hotel/casino roughly in no man’s land Connecticut, which is about where you would think the US government would throw Native Americans after destroying their culture and killing most of them. It would probably come to the surprise of many decades later that it was a very good place to put a casino that would draw both from New York City and the Boston area. It would also likely surprise those early American empire builders that a sport like MMA could exist and be televised around the world, and that an arena in that same locale would be the center for the sport in New England rather than other similarly sized arenas in Hartford, Bridgeport, Springfield, Worcester, Boston, or Providence. And yet, that’s exactly how its turned out.

This was the International Fight League’s 4^th show at the venerable 10,000 seat arena at Mohegan Sun. It was chosen as one of only three venues that the IFL would visit in this, likely its final year of operation, joining Izod Arena in New Jersey as well as the smaller indoor facility at the Orleans in Las Vegas. The designation was a result of the shows in the arena meeting or exceeding expectations for drawing fans, something that the building supposedly could never do. This was the same building, after all, that had the worst drawing UFC of the post boom era, and has never again seen a UFC show as a result.

This has left the IFL in the odd position of being the only major MMA organization to offer shows in New England, and with every single show, the attendance seems to mirror the others. This, like the other three, was somewhere in the 3,500 range for a crowd. While this would likely earn it disrespect from many because its not what Monday Night Raw does in the same building, the fact is that it outdraws most of the boxing that’s ever been held at the building. Ward/Gatti I was in this building, and honestly it didn’t draw very many more people. What was problematic were the number of expensive floor seats that went unsold. They priced themselves out there, going into three figures. However, the $50 and $25 seats sold plenty, which thusly makes a great argument for running more mid-level MMA shows in the same building (i.e. Ring Of Combat/KOTC type promotions). Just put on MMA, any MMA, and people show up to this venue.

The IFL itself has lost many of its major sponsors. Xbox and Sandals were once involved, and they’re now replaced with Headblade and Muscle Milk. If there’s ever been a cautionary tale about TV production, it’s the IFL. To think that the ratings were actually pretty friggin’ decent for a no name MMA organization on MyNetwork TV the first week and that they pissed it away and all the goodwill they had built up is, in retrospect, one of those historical things that we’ll talk about 20 years from now. There will be discussions about how it was the team format that did it or the fighters or whatever, but ultimately they had an audience to build with in week 1 and drove them away immediately with the worst MMA TV program that had ever been put on television. As it is now, their stars have largely departed for greener pastures after some convoluted thinking about contracts, and they’re reliant on the star power of Roy Nelson to sell this show. Again, if you need to know why Mohegan Sun is a strong venue for shows of this nature, a show with Roy Nelson headlining had over 3,000 people at it.

There were 9 bouts on the card, with no real rhyme or reason, far as I could tell. Good mix of weight classes, and 3 IFL title fights.

- John Franchi vs. Frank Latina (lightweights): Franchi’s dad was sitting right in front of me up in section 108. Latina was a local boy from Middletown, CT. Bout was short and sweet: Franchi ran in, got the clinch, took Latina down, got side control, mount, Latina turned over and gave up the rear naked choke. Very easy win for Franchi. His dad told me he had been training for all of 8 months as an MMA fighter and also brought up that he had beaten Justin Homsey, a Renzo Gracie student. Pretty impressive prospect to watch.

-Aaron Stark vs. Lamont Lister (light heavyweights): Stark is a guy who is a symbol about matchmaking in MMA. His record coming in was a paltry 5-4, but his losses were to guys like Mike Ciesnolevicz, Brian Stann, and Vladimir Matyushenko. The flipside is that he’s beaten some very good fighters like Reese Andy and Alex Schoenauer, but really, wouldn’t a couple mediocre fighters have been better than two current world champions in their organizations?

Lamont Lister is the kind of guy he should have been fighting. Lister looks undersized at light heavyweight, he has some BJJ but its not that good, his striking is passable, his wrestling not bad, but not overpowering. He’s a solid journeyman type guy who isn’t likely to give a good fighter an L but will still test him and force him to work.

The fight was a bit on the boring side, admittedly. Stark is a Team Quest guy, and so it probably will not surprise you, the reader, that he likes to wrestle guys to the ground. As I said with Lister, he’s a bit undersized, and thus really can’t do a lot of things to prevent that. Stark would take him down and beat him up a little, and then Lister would try to rally once in awhile. He rarely ended up in a dominant position. Stark winning a unanimous decision was not shocking to anyone.

-Nick Calandrino vs. John Howard (welterweights): Everyone behind me in section 108 was there for John “Doomsday” Howard. Howard’s a dude from Boston who I had never really seen before, but would like to watch if someone has a copy of Ring of Combat 17 laying around. Calandrino was an undefeated prospect with some solid wrestling.

Very good fight. Round 1 was all Calandrino. Big takedowns, and every time Howard would fight to his feet, Calandrino would drag him back down. This included a pretty awesome section where Howard fought out from under, Calandrino spun around and took his back and Howard’s attempt to flip out of it failed. Howard wasn’t doing very much off the bottom either when there. Round 2 followed up the same way for much of the first half. Howard did get up and reverse position to slam Calandrino, but Calandrino recovered, got to his feet and ended up driving Howard into the canvas. Howard regained the guard and rather than let Calandrino hold position and score points, Howard spent a good chunk of the last minute going after a triangle choke. He could never sink it in totally, and Calandrino made it to round 3.

From the onset of the final round however, it was clear Calandrino had nothing left, while the significantly more experience Howard did. Howard jumped in with single shots (actual combinations would have ended this one fast), but Calandrino’s defense for striking was nonexistent, and with his legs gone and ability to shoot for takedowns out the window, Howard repeatedly wobbled Calandrino with punches until the ref stopped it midway through the round. Calandrino may have gotten a slightly raw deal: while knocked down, he was driving towards Howard at the time to try and get a takedown.

Later in the night, Howard and his trainer came to see all the supporters. The trainer mentioned that they had heard they might get a rematch with Miller. More on that later.

TV TIME~! YOU’RE ON TV~!

-Matt Horwich vs. Joel Guel (middleweights): Horwich has quite the history at Mohegan Sun. He’s 2-2 there, having lost to Ryan McGivern and embarassingly to Jamal Patterson, but having won the middleweight title against Benji Radach at the building. I’ve seen Guel/Jess Liaudin but remember nothing about it. He’s had some bouts of inactivity in the last few years.

Horwich sort of flails with punches, gets the takedown, tries to punch Guel a lot, repeat. Horwich won every single round. His strategy of getting inside is interesting also: just throw some weak punches in great volume and then grab when you get in. There’s an obvious counter to that, though. Or you can be like McGivern and just take him down instead. Horwich should try to put punches together better but I have a feeling for what he can do physically, this is what will work for him.

-Zac George vs. Josh Souder (lightweights): For a 12-2 fighter, its not a good thing if both fights I’ve seen you don’t win (his first IFO fight, the bout with Taurosevicius in ’07). Souder also looks way bigger. Souder’s never beaten anyone I’ve heard of but he did lose to Jason Dent, which isn’t truly embarassing.

Souder is bigger and can box, and George isn’t good enough to get takedowns anyhow, so Souder knocks him out. The first right hand Souder threw landed and you knew right then and there George was in trouble. The second right landed too a few second later, and George was turtling up in the corner waiting for a ref.

-Danillo Villefort vs. Mike Massenzio (middleweights): Massenzio is a well regarded prospect with a wrestling background. Villefort is a virtual unknown whom I’ve seen and don’t remember when he fought for Minotauro Fights.

Massenzio gets a takedown immediately, but Villefort wants to be on his back, and is going for the rubberguard immediately. Massenzio was a little uncomfortable from that point whereas Villefort would counter anything Massenzio did with a transition into a submission attempt. Massenzio couldn’t just lay and pray out the fight, and that incentive for action gave Villefort the opening he was looking for. As Massenzio attempted to stand the fight up, Villefort grabbed a leg and never let go. Massenzio tried to defend it, but Villefort extended it and got a submission by kneebar. Easily the biggest win of his career and it really puts him on the map in the US.

-Dan Miller vs. Ryan McGivern (middleweight title bout): McGivern won the IFL’s middleweight in the first defense of the belt by Horwich, and Miller’s a pretty young kid who made a slight name for himself with his impressive debut with the IFL.

McGivern was significantly better standing than Miller was, landing crisp punches and leaving Miller seeming confused as to how to deal with that. After some initial abuse, he took down McGivern, and at that point, McGivern basically lost the fight. In a rare back to back showing of leg locks, Dan Miller won the middleweight title in the first round with, you guessed it, another knee bar, also basically in the same rough area of the ring. This had brought a lot of excitement to Howard’s people because, hey, a rematch is a title shot. Too bad he’d have to wait 5 months to get it.

-Ryan Schultz vs. Deividas Taurosevicius (lightweight title bout): By far the fight I was most excited for. Talk about a history with an arena and with the early ranting above: Ryan Schultz being KOed in this building and leaving on a stretcher is what the entire IFL debut program was built around, and basically what killed the promotion. It’s a real shame too, because that fight was a solid fight and part of a very good MMA card at the building. He returned to the building to beat Joe Sampieri and then his annhilation of Chris Horodecki last December. Deividas Taurosevicius has been on a tear since his loss to Frankie Edgar, beating Dan Lauzon, Zac George, a shockingly relevant Savant Young, and Bart Palaszewski.

The first two rounds were very tight, but Taurosevicius was obviously given them by the judges. He was superior standing in these rounds and was pretty active on the ground as well. Somewhere in the first round, Taurosevicius threw a kick that sounded like a gunshot in the stands after it landed on Schultz’s arm, and its possibly the one that broke his foot. From round 2 on, Taurosevicius looked weak every single round and Schultz just kept on coming. There were some beautiful guard passes from Schultz, including a particularly impressive one where he simply shoved Taurosevicius’ feet down and jumped into mount. Taurosevicius never totally gave up though, and absorbed the beating from Schultz rather than just quitting on his stool. I had the fight 4 rounds to 1, Schultz, the judges all saw it 3-2, but the end result was the same, and that was a successful title defense for Ryan Schultz.

One has to wonder, given the state of the IFL, where Schultz will go next if things fall apart. I don’t know that there is a place for him in what Dana White is slowly making the UFC into, nor in Gary Shaw’s vision of MMA. It’s a shame too, because he would be a great opponent for KJ Noons, or looking at the WEC, Jamie Varner, and yet we probably won’t get that.

-Roy Nelson vs. Brad Imes: Brad Imes now has a mustache that makes him look like the cowboy in The Village People. Roy Nelson is, as you might have guessed, fat.

Nelson just wings bombs and knocks down Brad Imes like 3 times. Imes goes down and has his legs up like he’s ready to use the guard, but the ref waives it off anyhow. I don’t really like Nelson in that he’s out of shape, only comes with one round of stamina (he was looking like he might have blown himself up here, actually), and probably has some real potential if he would ever do some situps and drop 40 lbs. Brad Imes fought, on the other hand, like a big, useless piece of shit. He threw a really slow jab to try and ward of Nelson, but his hand speed is glacial and Nelson easily threw rights over the top of it. This was his last real shot at the big time, and it just ain’t gonna happen.

As the crowd poured out, it was almost bittersweet knowing that this was, in overwhelming likelihood, the last IFL show I’ll ever have the pleasure of watching live, but I will remember them quite fondly and I hope their “success” in Connecticut will drive other promoters to start reconsidering Mohegan Sun Arena as a venue for fights. The crowd wants it now as much as ever.