On September 23rd, two legends of Mixed Martial Arts returned to the ring to face each other at the Mark of the Quad Cities in Moline, Illinois.
Pat Miletich coach of the Quad City Silverbacks and Renzo Gracie coach of the New York Pitbulls, earlier in the night, lead their teams in the International Fight League’s World Team Championship Quarterfinals. Shortly after the Silverbacks edged the Pitbulls 3-2 in the team competition, Gracie would exact a measure of revenge against Miletich in their one on one fight.
6,212 screaming fans stood as Miletich entered the ring for the first time since a TKO loss to Matt Lindland in 2002, and Gracie, only slightly more active during Miletich’s inactivity, waited in the ring.
For all its fanfare, the match played out slow early on and didn’t see any real action until Miletich had to defend a takedown attempt.
Gracie then slipped a front headlock on Miletich while they were clinched against the ropes. Miletich, not interested in taking the fight to the ground because of a previous neck injury, defended the choke while standing. For over a minute Miletich tried to break the hold but Gracie wasn’t letting go, and Miletich finally tapped out late with just under a minute and a half to go in the first round.
Despite Miletich’s loss, his Silverbacks did take the team competition 3-2 from Gracie’s Pitbulls and would advance to the World Team Championships semifinals.
Bart Palaszewski of the Silverbacks defeated Marcio Feitosa by split decision in the first lightweight bout. However not without some controversy, one judge scored two of the three rounds for Feitosa while another judge scored all three rounds for Palaszewski.
Rory Markham, the Silverbacks welterweight, took his team to 2-0 when he defeated Marcelo Azevedo by TKO in the first round. Markham rolled across the ring to escape a leg lock and when they stood Markham gained top position where he finished the fight.
Fabio Leopoldo got the Pitbulls’ their first point with a kneebar submission over Ryan McGivern in the second round. McGivern dominated the fight, but made a mistake when he tried to take Leopoldo’s back. Leopoldo rolled out of the attempt and secured the leg for the submission.
Andre Gusmao tied the score with a TKO victory early in the second round over Mike Ciesnolevicz. Gusmao dominated much of the fight and finished decisively forcing the referee to stop the fight.
The heavyweights were going to have to break the tie. And the Silverbacks’ Ben Rothwell did break the tie when he countered Bryan Vetell’s right hook with a straight right that dropped Vetell.
The win pushed the Silverbacks to the semifinals against the Toronto Dragons who earned their victory in their IFL debut against Frank Shamrock’s San Jose Razorclaws also in their debut.
Lightweight Josh Odom got the Razorclaws off to a winning start scoring a victory over Rob Di Censo. Odom made a mess of Di Cenzo’s right eye before putting him out on the canvas a minute and a half into the third round.
Claude Patrick did a victory lap around the ring apron after sinking in a guillotine choke on Ray Steinbeiss. The victory gave the Dragons their first victory and tied the score 1-1 with the Razorclaws.
Joe Doerksen scored the second victory for the Dragons when he defeated Brian Foster. The first round was close, but Doerkson took control early in the second by getting full mount and pounded Foster till he gave up his back where Doerkson finished the fight by rear naked choke.
Raphael Davis needed a win over Brent Beauparlant to keep the Razorclaws in the competition. Instead, they fought a back and forth for all three rounds. Each landed clean shots but neither had the power to finish the other. Beauparlant won a unanimous decision giving the Dragons a 3 fight sweep and the win over the Razorclaws.
This meant the heavyweight fight would not influence the outcome, but one would earn bragging rights. Travis Wiuff used his superior ground skills to beat Wojtek Kaszowski by unanimous decision.
Despite the heavyweight win, the Dragons earned the team victory and with it the chance to move on to the World Team Championships finals in December. But, they will have to face the Silverbacks first and the winner of that competition will take on either the Portland Wolfpack or the Los Angeles Anacondas who will be fighting in the other semifinal.
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