» Fighter: Vladimir Matyushenko

Light heavyweight “Robot” Steve Cantwell (7-2) “may never fight again” due to an unspecified medical issue according to UFC President Dana White.  Cantwell’s fight versus “Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (23-4) has been removed from the card at UFC 108 in Las Vegas Saturday.

Read More About BREAKING – UFC 108: Steve Cantwell Versus Vladimir Matyushenko Called Off…

American light heavyweight Jared Hamman (9-1) and Swede “Mauler” Alexander Gustafsson (7-0) will both debut in the UFC versus each other at UFC 105 at M.E.N. Arena in Manchester.

Hamman is an EliteXC veteran with stoppages over powerhouse “Diesel” Travis Wiuff (57-12), Strikeforce prospect Aaron Rosa (10-3), and ADCC submission grappler and M-1 Global fighter Rogent Lloret (6-1-1).

Before his debut in the Octagon, Hamman spoke to Fighters.com about training with “Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (23-4), his only loss by 15-second knockout, and his preparations to fight Gustafsson.

Read More About UFC 105 Rookie Jared Hamman Is “All Fire” When He Fights…

Xtreme Couture’s “Phenom” Vitor Belfort (18-8) scored his bulliest victory in four-plus years TKOing Fighters.com’s ninth-ranked middleweight “Ace” Rich Franklin (26-5) at 3:02 of round one in a 195-pound catch weight main event at UFC 103 in Dallas Saturday night.

“Jesus, I love you,” shouted Belfort in the Octagon after the fight, and in his dressing room he added,  “God gave me a gift and I’m using it.  And, I’m ready.  A lot of people thought I was done, you know, and that’s what I’m bringing to this game – hope, faith, and hard work.

Read More About Vitor Belfort Phenomenal Over Rich Franklin, dos Santos Convinces Cro Cop to Quit at UFC 103…

Former UFC middleweight title challenger Thales Leites (14-3) and welterweight “Barn Cat” Tamdan McCrory (11-3) have been released by the UFC after split decision losses at UFC 101 in Philadelphia Saturday, according to multiple sources.

“Legionarius” Alessio Sakara (14-7), who should’ve amounted to busy work for the Brazilian, upset Leites in a three-round split decision, rendering him with consecutive disappointing losses.

Leites paired with UFC middleweight champion “Spider” Anderson Silva (25-4) at UFC 97 in Montréal 18 April to engage in the most disappointing Octagon main event of the year. Leites refused to engage MMA’s most feared striker and several times fell to his back inviting the champion into his guard, which Silva refused.

Read More About UFC Cuts Thales Leites, Tamdan McCrory After 101, Adds Dennis Hallman, Vladimir Matyushenko…

Six more bouts were made official Monday for Affliction Day of Reckoning 24 January in Anaheim.

“Babalu” Renato Sobral (29-8) will fight “The Law” Matt Lindland (21-5).

“Minotoro” Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (14-3) will fight “Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (21-3).

“Headhunter” Paul Buentello (26-9) will face “Baby Fedor” Kiril Sidelnikov (3-1).

“Machine” Mark Hominick (14-7) will face LC Davis (9-1).

“Thorobred” Jay Hieron (13-4) will fight Jason High (6-0).

Albert Rios (6-2) will face “Tigre” Antonio Duarte (7-1).

Brett Cooper will also fight, although no opponent was named.

Read More About Affliction Announces Day of Reckoning Match-ups…

Fighters.com’s Heavyweight Champion and WAMMA Champion “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (28-1) and third-ranked “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski (14-5) will headline Affliction: Day of Reckoning, which will take place 24 January at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, the organization confirmed on their official website.

Emelianenko versus Arlovski had been reported previously, as well as the date of the event, but Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio last week would confirm neither the main event, the date, nor the venue for their second show.

Other fighters on the card are sixth-ranked heavyweight “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (23-5), “Minotoro” Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (14-3), “Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (21-3), “Babalu” Renato Sobral (30-7), “Phenom” Vitor Belfort (17-8), “The Law” Matt Lindland (21-5), and the IFL’s Jay Hieron (16-4) and Chris Horodecki (12-1).

The match-ups have not yet been announced.

“Minotoro” Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (14-3) versus “Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (21-3) is another bout officially announced by Affliction Wednesday.  The light heavyweights will fight 11 October in Las Vegas.

IFL champion Matyushenko met Nogueira in the ring before, earning a unanimous decision win over “Minotoro” in August 2002 and handing him his first professional loss.

Matyushenko is coming off eight consecutive wins; he has not lost since Fighters.com’s fourth-ranked heavyweight “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski (13-5) knocked him out in September 2003.

Nogueira previously confirmed his participation at Day of Reckoning.

“Are you serious?”

That’s the query I’d pose to Fighters.com’s Middleweight Champion “Spider” Anderson Silva (22-4) if I was UFC Matchmaker Joe Silva after the former Silva put “Sandman” James Irvin (14-5) to sleep in a minute in Las Vegas 19 July.  “Are you serious about being the UFC champion at both 185- and 205-pounds?”

If “Spider” only wants to bulk-up to obliterate un-ranked light heavies for kitsch, fine.

But, if Silva wants to match “Hollywood” Dan Henderson’s (22-7) feat of holding major titles at 185- and 205-pounds simultaneously – if he’s serious – he deserves a serious challenge in his next 205-pound showing.

He could do it.  Not with the Vaseline ease with which he ascended to the 185-pound crown, but it’s not an X-Files storyline either.

The determinant will be how Silva scales the mountain range at the top of the division.

UFC Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin (22-4), “Iceman” Chuck Liddell (21-5), “Rampage” Quinton Jackson (28-7), these beasts are all heavyweights with the work ethic to cut 40, 50 pounds or more and fight at 205 pounds.

Enter IFL Light Heavyweight Champion “Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (21-3)…maybe.

Read More About Monday Morning Matchmaker: Silva v Matyushenko…

Three IFL title-holders tightened the straps on their belts in the Izod Center just through the Lincoln Tunnel from New York City Saturday night.

“The Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (21-3), Wagnney Fabiano (10-1), and Jay Hieron (15-4) all defended their respective titles with knockouts.

Lightweight standout Chris Horodecki (12-1) picked up a unanimous decision, while one-time top 155-pounder “Bartimus” Bart Palaszewski (28-11) continued his slide with a loss by unanimous decision.

Featherweight Fabiano set-up a right slobber-knocker to Shad Lierley (2-2) with just his reputation as a submission specialist.

“People think I’m just a jiu-jitsu fighter,” Fabiano explained after the fight.  “Today I knew he would expect me shooting, so I changed my game plan.”

The KO came after just 37 seconds.

Hieron, an Xtreme Couture 170-pounder, dispatched Mark Miller (8-3) in just 2:10.

“It went quicker than I thought, but man it was not easy,” said Hieron after his right hook set-up a single-leg takedown leading to a G’n'P finish.

“The Janitor” had the toughest time of the IFL’s three defending champions.

Hometown Jamal Patterson (4-2), who’s won exclusively by submission, cranked up striking flurries in the first round causing Matyushenko to duck-and-cover.

But, Matyushenko handed Patterson his ass in the second with a ground’n'pound barrage the required the ref to wave the fight finished at 3:35.

IFL newcomer Jim Miller (11-1) ran “Bartimus” ragged for three rounds, dumping the winless-in-three lightweight at will and filing through submission attempts like he had an extra limb.  Palaszewski fought back valiantly with several crafty escapes, but Miller took all of the cards in his IFL debut.

Horodecki had a handfull named Nate Lamotte (6-3) to contend with in Horodecki’s return from his first loss to “The Lion” Ryan Schultz (19-9-1) in IFL’s Lightweight Grand Prix final.

Lamotte delivered some vicious G’n'P when he was able to catch Horodecki, but the IFL vet kept Lamotte at bay with a snapping jab and pin-pointed punches to take a UD by 29-28 times three.

And the rest of the story saw light heavyweight “Shark” Emyr Bussade (11-5) win his IFL debut with a kneebar of Jesse Lennox (6-1) at 1:25 of round two.

“Bad” Brad Blackburn (12-9-1) TKO’d “Pe de Chumbo” Delson Heleno (13-5) at 1:50 of the third round of a welterweight matchup.

Featherweight LC Davis (10-1) kicked Rafael Dias (10-4-1) in the head for the KO “W” at 3:56 of round three.

Xtreme Couture middleweight Alex Schoenauer (13-9) eeked out a split decision over Brendan Barrett (3-3).

Finally, heavyweight Miletich fighter Mike Ciesnolevicz (13-3) cut Kongo-conqueror “The Fury” Carmelo Marrero (7-2) with an unintentional headbutt in a fight declared a No Contest after 1:37.

The IFL returns 16 May in at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.

IFL titleholders “The Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko, “The Thorobred” Jay Hieron, and Wagnney Fabiano will defend their belts when the International Fight League returns to the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., with a nine-bout card on Friday, April 4.  In addition to the three Championship bouts, competition between camps will feature athletes from Renzo Gracie Academy, Midwest Combat, Miletich Fighting Systems, and American Top Team.

Tickets went on sale on Monday, Feb. 25, and are available at the IZOD Center Box Office (located at the Meadowlands), www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling (201) 507-8900.

Of particular interest is the addition of Florida-based American Top Team, which is “outside” of the core IFL camps to compete under the new IFL format which encourages challenges from the top MMA camps across the world.

Matyushenko, who defected to the U.S. while a member of the Belarus national wrestling team in the early 1990’s, was the IFL’s first individual champion, capping an unbeaten 2007 by winning the light heavyweight title by defeating Alex Schoenauer last November in Chicago.  On April 4, Matyushenko will battle “The Suit” Jamal Patterson, a Colgate University graduate who now serves as regional sales manager for an orthodontics company in addition to his MMA career.

Hieron, a Long Island native who will be fighting in front of a decidedly hometown crowd, knocked out “Pe de Chumbo” Delson Heleno in Connecticut in December to claim the welterweight crown.  His opponent in New Jersey will be Mark Miller, a former machine gunner in the U.S. Marines who was one of the big surprises at 170-lbs. last year in the IFL.

Fabiano is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert who used that skill to record five submissions, four of them in the first round, in a perfect 2007, culminating in a win over LC Davis in the featherweight championship in December.  He takes on Shad Lierley, a former collegiate conference wrestling champion at New York University who moves to 145-lbs. after impressing with two victories and a well-documented thrilling battle with “The Polish Hammer” Chris Horodecki last year.

“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.” 

Among the intriguing matchups in the Miletich-ATT pairing are those between welterweights Rory Markham and Emyr Bussade and light heavyweights Mike Ciesnolevicz and Lew Polley.  LC Davis will also compete against a yet-to-be-determined featherweight opponent.

The Gracie-Midwest bouts include a rematch of last year’s exciting Deividas Taurosevicius vs. “Bartimus” Bart Palaszewski matchup.  Delson Heleno will also fight at 170 lbs; his opponent is TBD. 

Outside of the camp matchups, Chris Horodecki will battle a yet unnamed lightweight for a planned minimum nine-bout card.

IFL East Rutherford, N.J.
Friday, April 4, 2008
(order TBD)

Additional Bouts
155 lbs.: Chris Horodecki (London, Ontario) (7-1 IFL, 11-1 overall MMA) vs. TBD

American Top Team vs. Miletich Fighting Systems
145 lbs.: TBD vs. LC 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.: Lew Polley (Coconut Creek, Fla.) (0-0, 6-0) 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.: TBD 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