The card for the IFL's next show on May 16 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. is starting to take shape.

The show will feature three title matches as well as best-of-three camp vs. camp battles between Mario Sperry's World Class Fighting Center taking on Gary Marino's Team Bomb Squad and Matt Lindland's Team Quest doing battle with Team Prodigy.

Here's the card so far...

IFL heavyweight title: Roy Nelson vs. Branden Lee Hinkle

IFL middleweight title: Ryan McGivern vs. Dan Miller

IFL lightweight title: Ryan Schultz vs. Deividas Taurosevicius

Team Bomb Squad vs. World Class Fighting Center

Middleweight: Mike Massenzio vs. Danillo Villefort

Welterweight: John Howard vs. Marcello Salazar

Lightweight: TBA vs. TBA

Team Quest vs. Team Prodigy

Middleweight: Matt Horwich vs. TBA

Lightweight: Zac George vs. TBA 

Light Heavyweight: Aaron Stark vs. TBA 

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com

I justed wanted to pass along this FYI; IFL middleweight Tim Kennedy will appear on tonight's (10 p.m. ET/PT) premiere episode of "T.O.P. Army Fighter" on the Military Channel. 

For more info on the show, go to: http://military.discovery.com/tv/top-army-fighter/top-army-fighter.html.

Kennedy fought for HDNet Fights on Dec. 15, losing a long-awaited rematch to Jason "Mayhem" Miller via unanimous decision.  He fought two weeks later during the IFL's Wolrd Grand Prix finals on Dec. 29 and won.

Kennedy had been scheduled to fight Matt Horwich for the IFL middleweight title in February but was forced to withdraw due to military commitments. 

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com

Former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight competitor Carmelo Marrero is scheduled to make his IFL debut on April 4 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., the promotion announced Wednesday afternoon.

Marrero, whose most notable win was an upset split-decision victory over Cheick Kongo at UFC 64, will represent American Top Team in a light heavyweight bout against Mike Ciesnolevicz of Miletich Fighting Systems.

Also added to the card are IFL veteran Brad Blackburn and newcomer Nate Lamotte.

Blackburn will take on Delson Heleno in a welterweight bout while Lamotte is set to square off against lightweight competitor Chris Horodecki.

The April show is scheduled to be televised on HDNet and will be headlined by three world title fights. Jay Hieron will defend his IFL welterweight title against Mark Miller; Vladimir Matyushenko's IFL light heavyweight title will be on the line in a bout vs. Jamal Patterson; and IFL featherweight champion Wagnney Fabiano will defend his crown against Shad Lierley.

The nine bouts made official in today's official announcement by the IFL are as follows:

Additional Bout

• 155 lbs.: Chris Horodecki (London, Ontario) (7-1 IFL, 11-1 overall MMA) vs. Nate Lamotte (0-0, 6-2)
  

American Top Team vs. Miletich Fighting Systems

• 145 lbs.: Rafael Dias (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) (1-0, 10-3-1) vs. L.C. Davis (Kansas City, Mo.) (2-0, 9-1)

• 170 lbs.: Emyr Bussade (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) (0-0, 10-5) vs. Rory Markham (Chicago) (6-2, 12-3)

• 205 lbs.: Carmelo Marrero (Douglasville, Pa.) (0-0, 7-2) vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz (Williamstown, Pa.) (5-3, 13-3)
  

Midwest Combat vs. Renzo Gracie Academy

• 155 lbs.: Bart Palaszewski (Wonderlake, Ill.) (8-3, 29-10) vs. Deividas Taurosevicius (Lithuania) (3-0, 9-2)
  

• 170 lbs.: Brad Blackburn (Olympia, Wash.) (3-2, 11-9-1) vs. Delson Heleno (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) (6-3, 13-4)

• *205 lbs.: **Vladimir Matyushenko (Belarus) (5-0, 20-3) vs. Jamal Patterson (Jersey City, N.J.) (4-1, 4-1)

Additional Championship Bouts

• *170 lbs.: **Jay Hieron (Freeport, N.Y.) (6-2, 14-4) vs. Mark Miller (Chicago) (2-1, 8-2)

• *145 lbs.: **Wagnney Fabiano (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) (5-0, 9-1) vs. Shad Lierley (Seattle) (2-1, 2-1)

 *Championship Bout
**Current Titleholder

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com

First, allow me to apologize for a lack of posting. I am currently in Miami on assignment. I return home tomorrow but regular posting my not resume until Tuesday due to a deadline on Monday for a separate project. MMA can be a lot of work but it beats a real job any day of the week. I'd rather work 70 hours a week doing something that I enjoy as opposed to 40 hours doing something that I detest.

If you've tried e-mailing me and haven't gotten a response, I apologize. For whatever reason, the connection at the hotel allows me to receive e-mails but won't allow me to send them out. A lot of my responses are saved and will be sent out Sunday when I get home.

I will be doing a post this morning with my picks for tonight's EliteXC: Street Certified card but before that I wanted to alert your attention to my weekly CBSSports.com column.

I conducted a very candid interview with International Fight League President and CEO Jay Larkin and the transcription of that conversation is now available by clicking here. I respect a lot of people in this industry and Larkin is at the top of the list. A lot of people believe that television is the key to the growth of this sport and few involved in MMA have more experience in television than Larkin.

I really feel this is a strong interview with Larkin saying some very intriguing things. I found Larkin's comments about his feeling that consolidation is the future of the industry to be very interesting:

Q: You've just expressed concerns about how other companies are conducting their business. Have you had a chance to go to the other fight promotions and express your concerns directly?

JL: Yeah. Listen, I think rollup or consolidation is the future of this industry. I think you've got a whole bunch of smaller companies out there that are struggling. I certainly think the way to do it is to have an association; a consolidation; if not an outright partnership with a combination of companies. Certainly by combining all of the smaller groups that are out there, you've got this huge economy of scale as suddenly coming to the table and we could actually build a very compelling business model ...

If you look at assets, we are very well positioned. We are the only ones now that have had live MMA competition on broadcast television. The only ones. That was with MyNetworkTV... We're finding that the consumer is aware of UFC and to a much lesser degree aware of IFL, and to no degree aware of all of the others; the Elite(XC)s, the M-1s, (and) Strikeforce. They're doing fine (and) they're doing their own business and in some cases have a higher profile than others but as far as the consumer goes, they equate MMA with UFC. 

I don't know if that can change and I'll tell you, I have no intention of going head-to-head with UFC and at best hope to be UFC-lite. That has no appeal to me (and) I think it is a mistake to go up against a company that's private and can operate under conditions that a public corporation cannot (and) that has demonstrated they have vast resources and has demonstrated they are willing to lose money if need be to establish the brand. That's a recipe for losing a battle. I am much more interested in being in the war, and that means having our own identity and our own brand ... One of the major things along those lines is that when you watch one of our shows, just by not seeing a cage you know you're not watching the UFC and that you're watching the IFL.

As far as the fights go, our fights continue to be every bit as competitive as anyone's, if not more so. You can take any one of our fights and lift it out of an IFL environment and drop it into the lights, the music, and the turmoil of a UFC event and nobody would ever think twice. It would probably even be an improvement over the fighting.

You should really check out the entire interview, which you can do by clicking here.

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com

The IFL announced during a Wednesday afternoon press conference that their second show of 2008 will take place on Friday, April 4 in East Rutherford, New Jersey at the Izod Center (formerly the Continental Airlines Arena).

The full card has not be finalized but the promotion officially announced three title matches. Vladimir Matyushenko will defend the IFL light heavyweight title vs. Jamal Patterson, Jay Hieron will put his IFL welterweight title against Mark Miller, and Wagnney Fabiano will also defend the IFL featherweight title against Shad Lierley.

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com

The IFL announced on Tuesday that three of its champions will be defending their newly won crowns during the promotion's first show of 2008 on February 29 in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena.

Lightweight champion Ryan Schultz, middleweight champion Matt Horwich, and heavyweight champion Roy Nelson will all be in action making their first title defenses.

Schultz is slated to face John Gunderson, the man he replaced against Chris Horodecki during the finals of the World Grand Prix on Dec. 29.

Nelson will attempt to defend his title against ground expert and former UFC competitor Fabiano Scherner.

Meanwhile, Horwich will attempt to follow his upset win over Benji Radach for the 185 pound belt against Army Ranger Tim Kennedy. Kennedy competed on the undercard of the finals for the World Grand Prix, needing just two minutes to knockout Elias Rivera.

In addition to the three title bouts, the IFL will feature two head-to-head bouts under its revamped team format.

Team Xtreme Couture will square off against Mario Sperry's Las Vegas-based MMA Top Team camp while Matt Lindland's Team Quest will face Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den.

According to sources close to the IFL, the Xtreme Couture team is assuming the role of the Los Angeles Anacondas from a year ago and will be competing in the IFL on a regular basis in 2008.

Both team matchups will be best-of-three.

The card to date is as follows:

- Matt Horwich vs. Tim Kennedy for the IFL middleweight title

Team Quest vs. the Lion's Den (fighters listed in order of teams they represent):

- Ryan Schultz vs. John Gunderson for the IFL lightweight title

- Fabiano Scherner vs. Roy Nelson for the IFL heavyweight title

- TBD vs. Pat Healy

Team Xtreme Couture vs. MMA Top Team:

- Benji Radach vs. TBD

- TBD vs. Marcello Salazar

- TBD vs. TBD

Preliminary Bout:

- Ian Loveland vs. Dennis Davis in a featherweight bout

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com

Bart Palaszewski will no longer train and compete for Pat Miletich's Iowa-based team in the IFL in 2008, according to The Fight Network. Instead, Palaszewski will fight for the IFL's Chicago-based team.

The Chicago team will consist of former Chicago Red Bear Mark Miller and former Tokyo Saber and current IFL light heavyweight champion Vladimir Matyushenko. 

Palaszewski indicated that his next fight is scheduled for April 4 and it will be a rematch against Deividas Taurosevicius stemming from their controversial fight this past September. In the match, Palaszewski was declared the loser via submission, however, he claims he never tapped. 

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com

ProElite.com (SamCaplan.ProElite.com) has learned that Randy Couture's Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas will be one of the four teams featured on the IFL's 2008 season opening card on February 29 at the Orleans Arena in Vegas.

In addition to Xtreme Couture, fighters representing Matt Lindland's Team Quest and Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den will be featured as well. A fourth and final team that will be appearing on the card has yet to be finalized.

The IFL is expected to announce the full card for the Feb. 29 season opener sometime next week. 

In addition to the team matchups, negotiations involving a middleweight title defense by Matt Horwich are currently ongoing. Horwich's opponent has not been finalized but could be within the next few days.  

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com

IFL welterweight champion Jay Hieron said Thursday that he expects to make his first title defense against Mark Miller on April 4 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ, according to The Fight Network.

Hieron claimed the title by defeating Delson Heleno during the finals of the IFL World Grand Prix in Uncasville, Conn. on Dec. 29.

Miller was 2-1 while competing for the IFL in 2007. After losing his debut to Heleno this past February, he rebounded with consecutive victories over Brad Blackburn and Josh Neer. 

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com

Ryan Schultz's upset victory over Chris Horodecki during the finals of the IFL World Grand Prix on Saturday has shaken the IFL lightweight division on its heels heading into 2008. With Schultz's win, suddenly it's not the Chris Horodecki division and the stage is now set for some very intriguing potential title matchups next year.

People can say what they want about the IFL, but they have a lot of legit fighters. And their lightweight division is stacked. So stacked that I came up with an idea that would work well for the company's first pay-per-view.

There's no need to pay big money for someone like Kurt Angle, instead, simply do a one-night, old school style eight-man tournament in the lightweight division that would feature Horodecki, Schultz, Bart Palaszewski, Savant Young, Shad Lierley, John Gunderson, Deividas Taurosevicius, and Erik Owings.

While the potential buyrate wouldn't challenge a typical UFC buyrate, having the promotion's eight best lightweights compete in a one-night tournament is something you can sell to hardcores. If marketed right, it's also a concept that could pique the interest of novice fans. And financially, using a single division that's already under contract to your promotion as opposed to trying to sign high-price talent as draws could be much for economically efficient.

Under the '07 format, the IFL couldn't utilize such a concept. However, with the relaxation of the team format in '08, there is a lot more freedom for the IFL to take chances such as a one-night tournament. By only having a best-of-three format instead of best-of-five format to determine team victories, it's much easier for a team such as the Anacondas to loan a fighter out like Horodecki for a concept such as this.

In the end, this idea will never happen for two major reasons.

One, while a one-night four-man tournament is feasible, I'm not sure there's a commission in the U.S. right now open to an eight-man bracket.

And second, it makes more sense financial for the IFL to sell the parity within their lightweight division over the course of an entire year as opposed to just one night.

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com