Gracie Chokes Miletich; Silverbacks and Dragons Win
Josh Gross Sep 24, 2006
MOLINE, Ill., Sept. 23 — It was because of his neck some four years
ago that Pat Miletich
(Pictures) had to walk away from the
game he so dearly loves.
Tonight, in his return to competitive mixed martial arts fighting against Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Renzo Gracie (Pictures), it was again his neck that would play a major role.
Fighting in front of a hometown crowd of 6,212 fans at The MARK of
the Quad Cities, Miletich fell prey to most rudimentary of chokes
at 3:37 of the opening round when Gracie, a master of such things,
tightened his natural noose around the former 170-pound UFC
champion’s once frail neck.
Representing their respective International Fight League squads, which earlier in the evening battled all the way to a fifth and deciding bout, both Miletich and Gracie had played significantly more important roles outside the ring in recent years.
But for fans that filled the MARK on a night when they could have stayed home and watched Miletich’s charge Matt Hughes (Pictures) battle B.J. Penn (Pictures) on pay-per-view, as well as what seemed like a legion of Gracie followers clad in red, previous fight results meant little.
Despite his poor record since the turn of the Millennium, Gracie was active as recently as July of last year. His somewhat consistent fight schedule, relative to Miletich at least, seemed to pay dividends early.
Renzo jumped out of the gate lighter on his feet and quicker with his hands. Miletich, despite the best wishes of virtually every person in attendance, appeared sluggish and lacked the proper timing to mount an effective attack.
Two minutes into the bout, Gracie clasped his arms around Miletich’s neck and made the first of two attempts to finish the fight via guillotine choke.
“I didn’t have it on the first one, and I knew I didn’t have it,” Gracie said. “I was holding my fingers, but I squeezed just a little to build up his confidence. So right there I saw that he was cocky and sticking even more his neck out.”
Gracie maintained the position with his arms while briefly setting his feet back to the ground. But the BJJ icon was simply setting up Miletich and giving false hope to the crowd.
“When I started to make a better grip. I stood up like I wanted to drive him so he pushed even further in,” the 39-year-old Brazilian said. “I had a grip on my wrist and I jumped back in. On the beginning he acted like it wasn’t working but I knew it was on and I just kept it. He started panicking and making noises, and I knew it was over.”
Said Miletich about the submission: “To be honest with you, I felt great. I felt safe in there.
“I knew that I needed to hit the ground with him to get out of it. Problem was I didn’t trust my neck enough to do it, so I was a little worried at that time and I felt my neck getting weak.”
Apparently he wasn’t the only man in the ring with injury concerns, as Gracie said two weeks out from the fight he hurt himself to the point that his hands were numb and he could not sleep properly.
Regardless, he had enough on this evening to catch Miletich, who many moons ago attended a seminar hosted by Gracie in hopes familiarizing himself with the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
At the post-fight press conference Miletich said this was likely the last time he’d step into the ring to compete.
“I think I don’t want to push my luck with the neck,” he said. “With two daughters and coaching and things like that, it would be smart, probably wise to just coach.”
Meanwhile, the affable Gracie promised a return to the ring.
Silverbacks win in front of home crowd
Some may remember a questionable decision as the difference maker between the Gracie-led New York Pitbulls and Miletich’s Quad Cities Silverbacks. But most, including the highly partisan crowd, will recall Ben Rothwell (Pictures)’s first-round knockout of Bryan Vetell as the reason the Silverbacks remained unbeaten in IFL league competition.
Tied at two wins apiece heading into the fifth and deciding bout, “Big” Ben worked from the clinch with the stout Vetell before finally creating space. The six-foot-four heavyweight plastered Vetell with a right hook, dropping the Pitbulls powerhouse on the spot.
“I was just trying to commit on something I could counter him with,” Rothwell said.
Awaiting his fight backstage after the Pitbulls tied it at two, Rothwell knew all too well what he needed to do.
“The team came rushing back to me,” he said. “I was just like ‘Please don’t talk. I know.’”
Bart Palaszewski (Pictures) opened the night as he’d done in his previous IFL efforts: with victory. For Quad Cities the somewhat questionable split decision (30-28, 29-28, 28-29) over Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Marcio Feitosa (Pictures) put them ahead 1-0 — and at the end of the night it had the Pitbulls head coach talking.
Feitosa did well in rounds one and two, scoring takedowns and connecting with strikes from within the Miletich-trained lightweight’s guard.
“Bartimus” picked it up in the second, scoring with strikes before Feitosa feinted and followed with his only takedown of the period. But it was what he needed to seemingly take a two rounds to none advantage into the third.
Palaszewski turned it around in the final four minutes, battering the BJJ fighter from post to post during a beautiful series of strikes. The Brazilian had little response, yet a takedown in the fight’s closing seconds had his teammates jumping out of their seats.
“Last round in my eyes was a 10-8 round,” said Palaszewski. “The first one was kinda iffy and the middle round, the second round, even though I was on the bottom I was doing most of the damage. I think the fights are scored on damage. It’s not a takedown contest, or a jiu-jitsu contest or who’s got better technique. It’s on damage, you know. Who gets beat up more pretty much.”
By that measure, Palaszewski clearly won. Gracie, however, vehemently disagreed.
“I think the [judges] that gave against [Feitosa], they could not even vote for a wet t-shirt contest at Hooters bar, to be honest, because they did not see the same fight that I saw,” Gracie quipped.
Hard punching welterweight Rory Markham (Pictures) survived early submission troubles as Marcelo Azevedo (Pictures) forced the Silverback to defend his legs from the outset. But the various submission attacks never fazed Markham, who calmly rolled across the ring to work his way out of what appeared to be a deep Achilles lock.
Markham stood and for the first time connected with his fast hands, using an accurate jab-right combination to push Azevedo backwards. Markham landed again, this time with a vicious right straight that sent Azevedo to the canvas.
Rather surprisingly, the Silverback followed into Azevedo’s world, which at that moment was rather fuzzy. Markham continued with mean right hands until the referee stepped in to call it two seconds before the end of the opening period.
Ryan McGivern (Pictures) appeared to be on his way to victory in what could have been the decisive bout in the Silverbacks-Pitbulls tilt, but Fabio Leopoldo (Pictures) made the most of a mistake to finish by kneebar at 2:49 of the second period.
A solid first period for McGivern led into round two, where he upped the pace and scored on the feet and the floor. Attempting to take the Brazilian’s back, McGivern failed to get his hooks and Leopoldo rolled forward, putting himself in position to take the wrestler’s left leg. He did, extending it past parallel to induce the fight-finishing and momentarily match-saving tapout.
Andre Gusmao (Pictures) followed Leopoldo’s lead and made it two in a row for New York, as he dominated Mike Ciesnolevicz (Pictures) before stopping the Silverback light heavyweight at 1:01 of round two.
A solid opening four minutes led into the middle round, which saw Gusmao continue to push forward. The fight ended when Gusmao put Ciesnolevicz on the floor, where he straddled his foe and dropped heavy punches to force a referee stoppage.
Newton’s squad earns first victory
Rebounding from a 1-0 deficit, the Toronto Dragons won three fights in a row to capture its first IFL victory, defeating the San Jose Razorclaws 3-2.
Razorclaw lightweight Josh Odom (Pictures) put together a nice performance, taking over his fight with MMA rookie Rob Di Censo following a competitive first period. Though Odom was warned during round two for grabbing the ropes, it was also the frame in which he started to assert himself.
By the time action moved into the decisive round, Di Censo’s faced showed signs that he’d been in a fight. It was under that backdrop that Odom, with Frank Shamrock (Pictures) in his corner, poured it on Di Censo, scoring twice with kicks to the left side of the Canadian’s ribcage. One more strike to the head was enough, and Di Censo fell on the spot 1:47 into the final round.
Claude Patrick (Pictures) refused to let the Dragons go in the hole two fights to zero. The scrappy Dragons’ welterweight took control from the opening bell by simply being the more physical fighter.
Scoring with knees in the clinch, Patrick tossed Steinbeiss to the floor and landed various strikes before the end. On top in the half-guard, Patrick quickly transitioned to his back while attacking the neck, forcing a tapout from Steinbeiss.
Veteran middleweights Joe Doerksen (Pictures) and Brian Foster (Pictures) had the task of giving their teams, the Dragons and Razorclaws respectively, the lead after three team fights.
After some smart grappling to start, Foster made the most of a referee stand-up by plastering Doerksen with a right hand. The Canadian was hurt, and he moved on wobbly legs to a neutral corner.
The fight went to the ground and Foster continued to punish Doerksen with right hands to the head. Undaunted, the Canadian 185-pounder returned to his feet and connected with a left hook to the face.
Following a good exchange on the feet to begin the second, Doerksen took the first advantage thanks to a nifty sweep off an armbar from the guard, putting him in side-control. Doerksen adeptly moved to mount and eventually back-control, from where he secured the fight ending rear-naked choke at 3:40 of round two.
With a 2-1 lead moving into the fourth contest between the IFL’s newest teams, Razorclaws light heavyweight Raphael Davis (Pictures) was charged with keeping his team alive. However, he had little to offer Brent Beauparlant (Pictures), who pounded Davis for three rounds to take a sweeping unanimous decision.
A sloppy slugfest, both men appeared to throw strikes in slow motion. It was Beauparlant who scored the more decisive blows. A plodding right hook hit its mark in the third and Davis dropped to the canvas. To his credit, Davis would not concede to the Canadian, whose victory sealed the night for Toronto.
The remaining heavyweight contest, which was of no consequence in the team format, saw Travis Wiuff (Pictures), who fought and lost twice for Pat Miletich (Pictures)’s squad, earn his first IFL victory under Shamrock’s banner. The experienced Minnesotan took down and dominated Wojtek Kaszowski (Pictures) to earn a lopsided unanimous decision.
Alternate Bouts
Veteran middleweight Dennis Hallman (Pictures) was up two rounds to none as his bout with Jeff Quinlan headed into the third period. Yet like he’s done so often in recent years when bouts moved into their latter portions, Hallman refused to move forward.
Quinlan scored a combination that made Hallman, now a member of the Toronto Dragons, wince. Quinlan pressed forward and eventually connected punches and hammerfists to Hallman’s head and body after the two moved to the floor.
Hallman, who’d previously fought for Maurice Smith (Pictures)’s Tigersharks, managed to reverse to the mount position as the bout’s final seconds ticked down. Quinlan’s aggression in the third was not enough to give him the fight, however, as two judges saw it for Hallman (29-27 and 29-28) and a third had it even, 29-29.
Kicking off alternate action, Delson Heleno (Pictures), who returned to the IFL for the first time since being disqualified in April for kicking Hallman in the head while both fighters were on the floor, landed a crisp jumping knee that dropped Ben Uker (Pictures) along the ropes.
The powerful Brazilian followed Uker to the blue canvas and unloaded a series of mean right hands before referee Yves Lavigne jumped in to protect the stunned light heavyweight.
Tonight, in his return to competitive mixed martial arts fighting against Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Renzo Gracie (Pictures), it was again his neck that would play a major role.
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Representing their respective International Fight League squads, which earlier in the evening battled all the way to a fifth and deciding bout, both Miletich and Gracie had played significantly more important roles outside the ring in recent years.
With Gracie going 1-6 since 2000 and Miletich inactive following a
TKO loss to Matt Lindland
(Pictures) in 2002, neither had been
mentioned anywhere near a Top-10 list for quite some time.
But for fans that filled the MARK on a night when they could have stayed home and watched Miletich’s charge Matt Hughes (Pictures) battle B.J. Penn (Pictures) on pay-per-view, as well as what seemed like a legion of Gracie followers clad in red, previous fight results meant little.
Despite his poor record since the turn of the Millennium, Gracie was active as recently as July of last year. His somewhat consistent fight schedule, relative to Miletich at least, seemed to pay dividends early.
Renzo jumped out of the gate lighter on his feet and quicker with his hands. Miletich, despite the best wishes of virtually every person in attendance, appeared sluggish and lacked the proper timing to mount an effective attack.
Two minutes into the bout, Gracie clasped his arms around Miletich’s neck and made the first of two attempts to finish the fight via guillotine choke.
“I didn’t have it on the first one, and I knew I didn’t have it,” Gracie said. “I was holding my fingers, but I squeezed just a little to build up his confidence. So right there I saw that he was cocky and sticking even more his neck out.”
Gracie maintained the position with his arms while briefly setting his feet back to the ground. But the BJJ icon was simply setting up Miletich and giving false hope to the crowd.
“When I started to make a better grip. I stood up like I wanted to drive him so he pushed even further in,” the 39-year-old Brazilian said. “I had a grip on my wrist and I jumped back in. On the beginning he acted like it wasn’t working but I knew it was on and I just kept it. He started panicking and making noises, and I knew it was over.”
Said Miletich about the submission: “To be honest with you, I felt great. I felt safe in there.
“I knew that I needed to hit the ground with him to get out of it. Problem was I didn’t trust my neck enough to do it, so I was a little worried at that time and I felt my neck getting weak.”
Apparently he wasn’t the only man in the ring with injury concerns, as Gracie said two weeks out from the fight he hurt himself to the point that his hands were numb and he could not sleep properly.
Regardless, he had enough on this evening to catch Miletich, who many moons ago attended a seminar hosted by Gracie in hopes familiarizing himself with the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
At the post-fight press conference Miletich said this was likely the last time he’d step into the ring to compete.
“I think I don’t want to push my luck with the neck,” he said. “With two daughters and coaching and things like that, it would be smart, probably wise to just coach.”
Meanwhile, the affable Gracie promised a return to the ring.
Silverbacks win in front of home crowd
Some may remember a questionable decision as the difference maker between the Gracie-led New York Pitbulls and Miletich’s Quad Cities Silverbacks. But most, including the highly partisan crowd, will recall Ben Rothwell (Pictures)’s first-round knockout of Bryan Vetell as the reason the Silverbacks remained unbeaten in IFL league competition.
Tied at two wins apiece heading into the fifth and deciding bout, “Big” Ben worked from the clinch with the stout Vetell before finally creating space. The six-foot-four heavyweight plastered Vetell with a right hook, dropping the Pitbulls powerhouse on the spot.
“I was just trying to commit on something I could counter him with,” Rothwell said.
Awaiting his fight backstage after the Pitbulls tied it at two, Rothwell knew all too well what he needed to do.
“The team came rushing back to me,” he said. “I was just like ‘Please don’t talk. I know.’”
Bart Palaszewski (Pictures) opened the night as he’d done in his previous IFL efforts: with victory. For Quad Cities the somewhat questionable split decision (30-28, 29-28, 28-29) over Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Marcio Feitosa (Pictures) put them ahead 1-0 — and at the end of the night it had the Pitbulls head coach talking.
Feitosa did well in rounds one and two, scoring takedowns and connecting with strikes from within the Miletich-trained lightweight’s guard.
“Bartimus” picked it up in the second, scoring with strikes before Feitosa feinted and followed with his only takedown of the period. But it was what he needed to seemingly take a two rounds to none advantage into the third.
Palaszewski turned it around in the final four minutes, battering the BJJ fighter from post to post during a beautiful series of strikes. The Brazilian had little response, yet a takedown in the fight’s closing seconds had his teammates jumping out of their seats.
“Last round in my eyes was a 10-8 round,” said Palaszewski. “The first one was kinda iffy and the middle round, the second round, even though I was on the bottom I was doing most of the damage. I think the fights are scored on damage. It’s not a takedown contest, or a jiu-jitsu contest or who’s got better technique. It’s on damage, you know. Who gets beat up more pretty much.”
By that measure, Palaszewski clearly won. Gracie, however, vehemently disagreed.
“I think the [judges] that gave against [Feitosa], they could not even vote for a wet t-shirt contest at Hooters bar, to be honest, because they did not see the same fight that I saw,” Gracie quipped.
Hard punching welterweight Rory Markham (Pictures) survived early submission troubles as Marcelo Azevedo (Pictures) forced the Silverback to defend his legs from the outset. But the various submission attacks never fazed Markham, who calmly rolled across the ring to work his way out of what appeared to be a deep Achilles lock.
Markham stood and for the first time connected with his fast hands, using an accurate jab-right combination to push Azevedo backwards. Markham landed again, this time with a vicious right straight that sent Azevedo to the canvas.
Rather surprisingly, the Silverback followed into Azevedo’s world, which at that moment was rather fuzzy. Markham continued with mean right hands until the referee stepped in to call it two seconds before the end of the opening period.
Ryan McGivern (Pictures) appeared to be on his way to victory in what could have been the decisive bout in the Silverbacks-Pitbulls tilt, but Fabio Leopoldo (Pictures) made the most of a mistake to finish by kneebar at 2:49 of the second period.
A solid first period for McGivern led into round two, where he upped the pace and scored on the feet and the floor. Attempting to take the Brazilian’s back, McGivern failed to get his hooks and Leopoldo rolled forward, putting himself in position to take the wrestler’s left leg. He did, extending it past parallel to induce the fight-finishing and momentarily match-saving tapout.
Andre Gusmao (Pictures) followed Leopoldo’s lead and made it two in a row for New York, as he dominated Mike Ciesnolevicz (Pictures) before stopping the Silverback light heavyweight at 1:01 of round two.
A solid opening four minutes led into the middle round, which saw Gusmao continue to push forward. The fight ended when Gusmao put Ciesnolevicz on the floor, where he straddled his foe and dropped heavy punches to force a referee stoppage.
Newton’s squad earns first victory
Rebounding from a 1-0 deficit, the Toronto Dragons won three fights in a row to capture its first IFL victory, defeating the San Jose Razorclaws 3-2.
Razorclaw lightweight Josh Odom (Pictures) put together a nice performance, taking over his fight with MMA rookie Rob Di Censo following a competitive first period. Though Odom was warned during round two for grabbing the ropes, it was also the frame in which he started to assert himself.
By the time action moved into the decisive round, Di Censo’s faced showed signs that he’d been in a fight. It was under that backdrop that Odom, with Frank Shamrock (Pictures) in his corner, poured it on Di Censo, scoring twice with kicks to the left side of the Canadian’s ribcage. One more strike to the head was enough, and Di Censo fell on the spot 1:47 into the final round.
Claude Patrick (Pictures) refused to let the Dragons go in the hole two fights to zero. The scrappy Dragons’ welterweight took control from the opening bell by simply being the more physical fighter.
Scoring with knees in the clinch, Patrick tossed Steinbeiss to the floor and landed various strikes before the end. On top in the half-guard, Patrick quickly transitioned to his back while attacking the neck, forcing a tapout from Steinbeiss.
Veteran middleweights Joe Doerksen (Pictures) and Brian Foster (Pictures) had the task of giving their teams, the Dragons and Razorclaws respectively, the lead after three team fights.
After some smart grappling to start, Foster made the most of a referee stand-up by plastering Doerksen with a right hand. The Canadian was hurt, and he moved on wobbly legs to a neutral corner.
The fight went to the ground and Foster continued to punish Doerksen with right hands to the head. Undaunted, the Canadian 185-pounder returned to his feet and connected with a left hook to the face.
Following a good exchange on the feet to begin the second, Doerksen took the first advantage thanks to a nifty sweep off an armbar from the guard, putting him in side-control. Doerksen adeptly moved to mount and eventually back-control, from where he secured the fight ending rear-naked choke at 3:40 of round two.
With a 2-1 lead moving into the fourth contest between the IFL’s newest teams, Razorclaws light heavyweight Raphael Davis (Pictures) was charged with keeping his team alive. However, he had little to offer Brent Beauparlant (Pictures), who pounded Davis for three rounds to take a sweeping unanimous decision.
A sloppy slugfest, both men appeared to throw strikes in slow motion. It was Beauparlant who scored the more decisive blows. A plodding right hook hit its mark in the third and Davis dropped to the canvas. To his credit, Davis would not concede to the Canadian, whose victory sealed the night for Toronto.
The remaining heavyweight contest, which was of no consequence in the team format, saw Travis Wiuff (Pictures), who fought and lost twice for Pat Miletich (Pictures)’s squad, earn his first IFL victory under Shamrock’s banner. The experienced Minnesotan took down and dominated Wojtek Kaszowski (Pictures) to earn a lopsided unanimous decision.
Alternate Bouts
Veteran middleweight Dennis Hallman (Pictures) was up two rounds to none as his bout with Jeff Quinlan headed into the third period. Yet like he’s done so often in recent years when bouts moved into their latter portions, Hallman refused to move forward.
Quinlan scored a combination that made Hallman, now a member of the Toronto Dragons, wince. Quinlan pressed forward and eventually connected punches and hammerfists to Hallman’s head and body after the two moved to the floor.
Hallman, who’d previously fought for Maurice Smith (Pictures)’s Tigersharks, managed to reverse to the mount position as the bout’s final seconds ticked down. Quinlan’s aggression in the third was not enough to give him the fight, however, as two judges saw it for Hallman (29-27 and 29-28) and a third had it even, 29-29.
Kicking off alternate action, Delson Heleno (Pictures), who returned to the IFL for the first time since being disqualified in April for kicking Hallman in the head while both fighters were on the floor, landed a crisp jumping knee that dropped Ben Uker (Pictures) along the ropes.
The powerful Brazilian followed Uker to the blue canvas and unloaded a series of mean right hands before referee Yves Lavigne jumped in to protect the stunned light heavyweight.
