EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., April 4 -- Instead of "New Blood, New Battles," the IFL should have called Friday's show at the Izod Center "New Jersey Knockouts."
Most probably thought that IFL welterweight champion Jay Hieron (Pictures)'s defense against Mark Miller would be the fight of the night. Hieron quickly controlled Miller with a right-hook counter followed by a single-leg takedown. Once on the ground, Hieron overwhelmed with strikes until the referee stepped in at 2:10 in the first.
"It went quicker than I thought, but man it was not easy because I trained for 10 weeks -- hard -- for this fight," Hieron said. "Twice a day, hours spent in the gym. … Hard work pays off, and it paid off tonight."
Hieron attributed much of his success to his coach, Shawn Tompkins (Pictures), and the rest of his team. He also talked about Randy Couture (Pictures) helping him stay positive and visualize things better.
"Not only has my technique with Shawn and all the guys we have in the camp gotten better, but my mental game has changed 360," he said.
There's no other way to say it: IFL 145-pound champion Wagnney Fabiano (Pictures) is no joke. He's become the IFL's most dangerous submission expert, and after Friday, he's now a knockout artist. Shad Lierley (Pictures) found that out firsthand.
After a couple of good leg kicks, Fabiano had Lierley moving straight back and touched his chin with a vicious right that caused Lierley to crash to the floor and seize up.
"People think I'm just a jiu-jitsu fighter," Fabiano said. "Today I knew he would expect me shooting, so I changed my game plan."
If Fabiano continues to showcase a standup game like the one he showed Friday, any 145 pounder in any organization should start to pay attention to him.
Jamal Patterson (Pictures) shocked everyone in attendance by wobbling IFL light heavyweight champion Vladimir Matyushenko (Pictures) early in their fight. Patterson put his hands all over Matyushenko, causing him to cover up multiple times. The Renzo Gracie (Pictures)-trained fighter also ended the first round with a guillotine attempt that had the crowd in a frenzy for their local boy.
Matyushenko answered in the second round by getting serious, however. Once he was able to get Patterson on the ground, he made him pay by trapping an arm and delivering tons of shots until a battered Patterson stopped defending himself and the ref called off the onslaught.
"I just tried to feel him out," said Matyushenko after his successful title defense. "I knew he was going to come hard, so I was just trying to get him tired. I thought it worked. He got tired. He tried to choke me a few times and he spent a lot of energy on that."
After getting beat up for most of his fight against Delson Heleno (Pictures), Brad Blackburn (Pictures) scored a stunning victory in the third round.
Heleno was healed from his injury in December and curiously seemed content to mix things up with Blackburn instead of looking for a submission. The skilled grappler finished a fairly uneventful first round by attempting a leaping punch over the legs of a prone Blackburn.
In the second round, Heleno came alive and unleashed some hard shots while on top. After eating hard right hands, Blackburn began to kick Heleno away, only to be met with more overhand punches.
Blackburn had to do something drastic to pull off a victory, and in the middle of the third he got his chance. During a scramble, he got to his feet first and as Heleno reached out for him, Blackburn unleashed a hard right hand that caught Heleno on the button. Heleno collapsed to the ropes, and the referee was forced to step in before Blackburn could dish out any more damage.
Jim Miller threw a little of everything at Bart Palaszewski (Pictures) to earn a unanimous decision. After getting stuck in an anaconda choke that looked to end the fight early, Palaszewski made a gusty escape. He kept rotating while on his back until he could roll over and get out of Miller's grasp.
However, he had no answer for Miller's takedowns and was put on his back repeatedly. Miller used a similar head-and-arm choke to violently roll Palaszewski onto his back and transition to the mount, but Palaszewski squirmed out again.
"Bartimus" showed he is a tough customer and eventually got up and began throwing kicks, but the offense was too late.