IFL Word Team Championships

December 29, 2006. My first time to watch MMA live. Also my first time to the Mohegan Sun.

The fights were great, even the pre-show fight for alternate was awesome. The show was produced well. They had Miss Connecticut (or some other state) do the national anthem and had some teeny pop girl sing for half-time. All the fights were good…few ended with decisions and there was only one really bad fight which had one of the fighters in guard almost the whole time. The Renzo Gracie – Carlos Newton fight was all right. Gracie is showing his age I think, and even though he was able to avoid a lot of strikes, he didn’t look like he trained too hard – – at least compared to Newton, who looked huge and at his prime. Gracie won, by (controversial) decision. Everyone, including himself, thought that Newton won. I took the fight with round 1 – Gracie, 2 – tie, 3 – Newton.

It really sucked that by the time I was able to confirm who was going to go watch the fights with me, tickets were almost sold out and didn’t have any choice as to the class and location of seats – – we sat almost near the last row of seats. I really need to confirm the number of tickets sooner so I can get better seats next time. Not only were the seats far, all the freebies (contests, shirts) all went to those with better seats (read: managed to get tickets earlier). You could still see the fight going on pretty well though, but it was better to watch the fight on one of the big screens – which kinda defeats the purpose of watching live. At least they gave lots of free popcorn to everyone – that is, they were handing them out near the restrooms and concession area. I brought my binoculars-camera and it worked pretty well. Here are some pix I managed to take:

The ring and the stage before the event got started

The Pre-fight dance. Could be the worse MMA pic ever. Was a good fight

Ground and Pound: First fight of the night

Guillotine attempt on the fourth fight

The ring girl 1

The ring girl 2

Trading blows. First main event fight

Ryan Schultz: carried out on a stretcher and feeling great…third main event fight

The fourth main event fight. It was pretty much just like that…

The lone Wolfpack win and the fifth main event fight

Renzo Gracie going for something on Carlos Newton

Newton and Gracie throwing punches

It was good that the IFL really does put a bigger emphasis on fighter safety. Doctors would jump into the ring when a fighter would get knocked out and every hurt fighter was thoroughly check out. One fighter was even taken out of the ring on a stretcher with a neck brace on. It was announced that it was just a precaution and that he was ok. Additionally, even though regular elbows were not allowed, you didn’t miss them in the fights…the fights actually seemed better with out them. These fighters really gave everything they had and they fought well. I can’t remember what the weight was, I believe it was the heavyweight bout, the one guy went airborne and kicked the other guy. I think that fight ended with a kick too. Not what you’d expect from heavy fighters.

Overall, it was a great show and I can’t wait to go and watch another live MMA show. If only there would be more of them in the east coast…