“The IFL’s Chicago Debut”
A correction from my previous report on the main-event: I had said that the Ruas-Smith fight had gone around 17 minutes, when it was actually closer to 14.
The IFL came, I saw it, and no one really conquered. Judging a MMA company by the product the present is a tricky business. Unlike professional wrestling, where a poor show can in part be justifiably blamed on the promoter, with MMA the quality of show can largely be out of the promoter’s hands. For what the IFL could control, I thought it was a good effort.
The brand new Sears Centre in suburban Hoffman Estates was a great venue for the IFL. It’s not a 20,000 seat arena, like the United Center or All-State Arena, nor is it a glorified warehouse like The Odeum, where ECW used to run. I believe the building can hold around 10,000 people and this past Saturday I roughly estimated that they had somewhere around 2,500 or so inside (though I confess I’ve never been terribly well-suited at making such guesses). With the staging that was set up, and the darkening of the upper balcony, I think the crowd will look good on TV. The fans were mostly into the action, with the expected catcalls and boos during some clinch and ground work, but it wasn’t a hostile audience by any stretch of the imagination. They clearly saw the Silverbacks as the big deal. Even though the Miletich-lead squad was facing the supposed hometown “Chicago Red-Bears,” the boys from Western Illinois/Eastern Iowa were the favorites. The crowd wasn’t against the Red-Bears at all, and would even cheer when a Red-Bear won. In particular, Chicago’s Hellhouse product, Mark Miller got over very well. He defeated UFC veteran, Josh Neer, with a first round knockout. It was the biggest punch of the night and, helped by a contingent of what looked to be about 15 family members, the crowd erupted for the local boy. He cut a promo afterwards acknowledging Chicago. I felt like the fans liked him as a fighter, but the idea that he was a “Red-Bear” didn’t really matter. The support was kind of, “Yes, we know you’re ‘our team’ and that’s cool, but we don’t really care about the Red-Bears that much.” But, building a brand like the IFL takes time, and building a sub-brand in individual teams will take even longer. The Chicago Bulls didn’t become popular overnight.
The other fighter to get over well was Silverback heavyweight Ben Rothwell. He notched his 7th IFL victory, tapping out Travis Fulton with a kimura in round two. This may have been Fulton’s 800th fight (he’s actually well over 200 known fights, and probably a great number more of which no one can find record). Like Miller, Rothwell had a large throng of friends and family in attendance, including his father who was celebrating his birthday. I figured there were around 75 people there just to see Rothwell and more than anyone else on the show, he came across like a superstar. The crowd was hotter for his fight and mercilessly booed Fulton like he was Osama bin Laden.
The IFL runs a professional show from start to finish. They had two preliminary fights, one of which ran a little long as it was a draw after 3 rounds, forcing an overtime period, which in turn lead to the main show starting at 7:50 – 20 minutes later than the advertised kickoff, which isn’t too bad. There weren’t any lulls in the presentation. After a fight would end, they’d sometimes have Bas Rutten get in the ring to do a post-fight interview, but the next bout usually began within 10 minutes.
As a credentialed member of the press, the IFL treated me very well, never getting in my way, nor prohibiting me from talking to anyone. I was able to walk around ringside (not ringside seats, but the actual ring itself) freely with no one giving me a hard time. The IFL was very courteous and went out of their way to make sure the press was given everything they needed.
I also want to publicly thank Stephen Quadros for being an all-round cool guy. I’ve known Stephen for some time now, but this was the first time I’d met him in person and he couldn’t have been nicer. And hey, being introduced by Stephen to Bas Rutten was kinda cool too! (I know, I’m a mark journalist.) Both men were stars to the public and I heard more than a few people remark at how much they missed the duo’s commentating days from PRIDE.
However, the night wasn’t perfect. As my other write-up noted, the main-event was horrendous. Marco Ruas in particular was a sad imitation of the fighter that won a UFC title. It left a sour note on the evening and really left a lot of people unhappy as they headed home. Obviously the IFL can’t control what actually happens in the fights, and while I suppose they could have figured ahead of time that two men over the age of 45 wouldn’t make for a great fight, there are only a limited number of “name” fighters for the company to use and this had at least some marquee value.
The other negative on the night was the number of overall fights, a problem that probably can’t be corrected. 11 fights (13 if you include the two prelims) is a lot, even for the most hardcore of fans, and I think people were feeling drained by the four-hour mark. I recognize that they want to tape two meets per show, to cut down on overall costs and provide “bang for the buck,” but one meet and maybe two superfights for a total of 7 fights instead of 11 would probably work better. Sometimes less is more. Yet, that is the IFL. They will either live or die by the team concept. If the idea behind the company is one that is not ultimately supported, it won’t be for a lack of execution.
It could have been a better show, there’s no doubt about it, but I think the IFL put forth a solid debut effort. If the main-event were better, I think a lot of people would have left the Sears Centre raving about what they’d seen. As it stands, I won’t curse the day when the IFL returns to Chicago.
I want to also urge everyone to head to f4wonline.com and give my radio show, Five Star Radio, a listen. This week’s show is free and it’s loaded. I’ve got more on the IFL, a UFC preview, short interviews with Jake Shields, Brock Lesnar, and Royce Gracie, and a lot more, including all the MMA news from around the world. {plug}
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