Fabiano

("The Janitor" cleaned "The Suit" at the IFL's Jersey joint.)

Three titles were on the line at last night's IFL event in East Rutherford, New Jersey and Vladimir "The Janitor" Matyushenko, Wagnney Fabiano, and Jay "The Thorobred" Hieron all successfully defended their titles in front of 5,131 fans at the Izod Center. Matyushenko seemed to be in for quite a fight when his opponent, local boy Jamal "The Suit" Patterson, had a strong showing in the opening frame. The second was a different story, however, and the champ ended the fight with a series of blows for a TKO win with 30 seconds left in the round to raise his record to 21-3.

In Fabiano's fight, the champion KO'd Seattle fighter Shad Lierley just 37 ticks into the fight, which was somewhat unexpected due to Fabiano's love for taking it to the ground early. The other championship fight also ended in the first, with Jay Hieron dominating Mark Miller. The fighter picked up a TKO after a vicious GnP of his Chicago challenger.

The camp match-ups pitted Miletich Fighting Systems versus American Top Team and Midwest Combat versus Renzo Gracie Academy. Featherweight LC Davis of KC, got a win for Miletich when he KO'd Rafael Dias in the Brazilian's second fight for the IFL. The fight was an exciting one throughout and Davis just managed to get the KO with seconds left in the bout. ATT got a win when welterweight Emyr Bussade got a second-round kneebar sub over Jesse Lennox. The deciding fight ended up being a non-decisive one when it was ruled a no contest. It was a light heavy match-up featuring two Pennsylvania fighters, Carmelo Marrero and Mike Ciesnolevicz. The no contest came about when Marrero received a cut on his head from an inadvertent head-butt and the gushing wouldn't stop. Where's "Stitch" when you need him?

(Mark Miller (L) will attempt to knock Jay Hieron's shades off.)

Quiet out on the MMA plains this evening, but here are a couple of news pieces to check out:

--- The official weigh-in for tomorrow night's IFL show in Jersey came and went today, and all went smooth. The show kicks off at 7:30 pm (ET) and goes live on HDNet at 8:30 pm (ET).

Here are the weigh-in results:

Title Fights
Jay Hieron (170) vs. Mark Miller (170.4)
Wagnney Fabiano (145.4) vs. Shad Lierley (145.8)
Vladimir Matyushenko (205.4) vs. Jamal Patterson (205.6)

Non-Title and Team Fights
Delson Heleno (170.8) vs. Brad Blackburn (171)
Jim Miller (155) vs. Bart Palaszewski (155.5)
Nate Lamotte (155.8) vs. Chris Horodecki (154.6)
Mike Ciesnolevicz (206) vs. Carmelo Marrero (205.8)
Emyr Bussade (170) vs. Jesse Lennox (170)
Rafael Dias (145.6) vs. L.C. Davis (145.6)
Alex Schoenauer (204) vs. Brendan Barrett (205.5)

We would post video of the weigh-ins, but it was just too intense for a Thursday.

--- Keith Kizer and his NSAC boys weren't able to bust any of the fighters from WEC 33. Fighters were tested for the normal perf-enhancing drugs and those of abuse. Brian Stann, Doug Marshall, Logan Clark, Alex Serdyukov, Richard Crunkilton, Chael Sonnen, Bryan Baker, Steve Cantwell, and Marcus Hicks were given a pass for their piss. Kizer said that the state of Nevada has had "no positive tests yet this year, although we have tested way more fighters in January through March 2008 than in any other January through March period of years past." Brag, much?

We would post video of the piss --- and other --- tests, but it's too early on a Thursday for that sort of thing.

("I'm back, Bitches!")

The IFL sent out a press release today detailing their second event in 2008. And true to the organization's word, multiple titles will be on the line. Vladimir "The Janitor" Matyushenko, Jay "The Thorobred" Hieron, and Wagnney Fabiano will all be defending their belts at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. during a nine-bout event on Friday, April 4th. The three championship bouts will be accompanied by match-ups between camps including Renzo Gracie Academy, Midwest Combat, Miletich Fighting Systems, and American Top Team. No word if Kyra Gracie will be among the RG Academy's fighters.

What did Bas Rutten, IFL Vice President of Fighter Operations, have to say about the event, you might ask?

"I like the local feel of this card," said Bas Rutten, IFL Vice President, Fighter Operations. "In addition to three outstanding championship matchups, featuring fighters from New York and New Jersey, you have Renzo Gracie's camp, which was the champion last year, Midwest Combat, which features our top fighters from the Chicago area, and great battles with the Miletich camp and American Top Team, which we are very excited to have on board."

American Top Team - based out of Florida - is considered outside of the core IFL camps and is one of the first to compete under the new IFL format.

"The Janitor" defected to the U.S. when he was a member of the Belarus wrestling team in the 90's and became the IFL's first individual champion when he won the light heavyweight title against Alex Schoenauer in November. He will face Jamal "The Suit" Patterson (God, these fucking nicknames), a sales manager for an orthodontics company. That's even worse than being a real estate agent - not that we're judging.