Schultz, who capped an undefeated year in the IFL by winning the lightweight title, seemed to be the only person not surprised by the outcome of the fight.
“I’m one of the best in the world at 155 (pounds) on any given night,” he said. “I was more than happy to get in there (on short notice).”
Schultz rebounded from a prior loss to Horodecki with the win, getting revenge for a loss that he said “haunted” him and doing so on the biggest stage possible. He controlled the fight from the first minute, taking Horodecki down and working well from his closed guard.
After incapacitating the Canadian’s wrist in the half-guard position, Schultz unleashed a brutal barrage of right hands that Horodecki could find no answer to, forcing the referee to stop the bout.
“I work that move a lot,” Schultz said. “You can ask anyone I train with. If I catch that wrist, you’re toast. I use that move all the time.”
In middleweight action, Matt Horwich survived a difficult first-round to come from nowhere in the second with a quick knockout of slugger Benji Radach to capture the 185-pound title. Radach seemed in control of the fight, opening a cut beneath Horwich’s eye in the first, and he managed to avoid Horwich’s takedowns and nullify his tricky submissions game.
Midway through the second, however, a left high kick from Horwich momentarily stunned Radach, and a left hook crumpled him against the bottom rope. Horwich, another Team Quest fighter, attributed the win largely to his training regimen.
“I decided to stick with the game plan and keep the pressure on,” Horwich said. “I have great cardio… I knew the longer it went the better it would look in terms of cardio.”
Another middleweight on the card, Tim Kennedy, remarked on the possibility of challenging Horwich for his belt following his own TKO win over Elias Rivera in a preliminary bout.
“Matt’s a really humble, good guy and I’m looking forward to that matchup,” Kennedy said. “I want that belt… I think it will be a great fight, and a great knockout.”
In the welterweight division, Jay Hieron used his wrestling skills to stay on his feet for a change, picking apart jiu-jitsu phenom Delson Heleno with his striking game. Hieron stuffed Heleno’s early takedown attempts and seemed to injure the Brazilian with a right hand that clipped him late in the first round.
After dropping Heleno with an uppercut, Hieron finished the round with a flurry of punches and left Heleno unable to continue on to the second round.
Heavyweight Roy Nelson defeated Antoine Jaoude for that title with a huge right hand that sent his opponent staggering. The TKO victory came as the two world class grapplers chose to stand and slug it out for the entirety of the fight, with both men trading heavy leather in the opening frame. Nelson credited his improved striking game for the victory, saying his grueling season in the IFL prepared him for this climactic bout.
“To have the belt means a lot,” Nelson said. “The IFL is a great organization to work for because they match you up with guys who are as good as the guys anywhere else.”
In the newly created featherweight division, Wagnney Fabiano continued to display his technical brilliance in the ground game with a first-round submission of L C Davis. The methodical Fabiano controlled the pace of the fight and patiently improved his position before locking on the armbar late in the round.
The five new IFL champions join Vladimir Matyushenko, the league’s 205-pound champ, as the title-holders who will put their belts on the line in the 2008 season.
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