IFL Houston All Access Day 3

by: DarthMolen 1 year, 11 months, 5 days, 10 hours, 59 minutes ago 1

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We arrived on the scene a little disorganized. We had a full camera crew( Camera-man, Sound man, and Interviewer) with a boom mic, wireless transmitters, the works. We were low on batteries and cables so we had to go make a Radio Shack run to get what we needed. We finally got all the equipment sorted out and were ready to tackle the IFL event.

After retrieving our press passes, we immediately went into the arena to scope out the shoot locations. There were people scurrying everywhere. The sound was blaring and they had some great music rolling out over the loudspeakers.

The crowds started to stream in and we went to take some crowd shots and interview different people coming into the venue. We just happened to stumble across Kurt Otto’s niece and nephews. Kurt Otto is one of the founder’s of the IFL. This was their first MMA event and they were coming out to see the spectacle their uncle had organized.

We next searched out Jerry Milani and he escorted us up to the locker rooms to show us what we could and couldn’t film before and during the matches. Luckily he told the security guard that we and only we were allowed up near the locker rooms.

We started to give brief interviews to fighters before their matches. It was important that we didn’t interrupt their concentrations so we limited our questions to one or two important “feeling” questions. Some examples were “How are you feeling right now before your match with x?” or “We know that x is a tough fighter, what do you plan to do to beat him?”. Action shots were the order of the day and it was fun to watch the fighters warm up.

Their new uniforms looked great. They changed sponsors on the tops from Full Contact Fighter to Fairtex and lightened up the colors. They also brought on Crocs, which is a slip on footwear that my son uses, that matched their main color and set off the uni’s nicely. They were very useful to because the fighter could wear it out to the ring and slip them off really easily without worrying about laces.

The fighters were great. Komikazee had interviewed Matt Ver Halen the night before and he is an exciting fighter to watch. Matt is an alternate for the Scorpions but due to an unfortunate event, he was going to be able to fight and he was so pumped. Anyways, we had just done another interview and taken some action shots and Matt was circling the floor bouncing and warming up. When we went to pass he pawed at me then did a quick shadow boxing routine.

The fights started and we hurried out to the floor. I was standing right outside the barricades that circled the ring taking pictures with a still camera we brought. The fights were exciting and as the fighters came out of the ring, I could literally stick my hand out and congratulate them when they won.

The first matchup was the Scorpions vs. the Sabres. The Sabres ending up winning 3 - 2 and the best fight of that matchup was the last with Matt Ver Halen vs. Izena, a wrestler. They were constantly going at each other with very little foreplay. Izena was constantly trying to lure Matt in so that he could take him down and Matt would have none of it and stayed at a distance throwing lots of good combinations.

The next matchup was the Anacondas vs. the Silverbacks. With Rory gone hurt, the Silverbacks floundered a little bit with his replacement, Victor Moreno, going down easily to Jay Hieron. The fight of the night was Palesczewski vs. Horodecki and I truly have never seen a better match. I would even put it above Forrest vs. Bonnar, it was that good. Back and forth they went with one getting the upper hand and then the other. Horodecki even had to fall outside the ropes to escape a guillotine and ended up winning a split decision. The defending champion Silverbacks lost 3-2.

Afterwards, Matt Lindland easily took out Carlos Newton but Komikazee was busy interviewing fighters behind-the-scenes to see it firsthand. There was a press conference afterwards where all the fighters filed in by team and we were allowed to ask questions. We taped the whole things and I even got a couple zingers in. There was a plant for the IFL in the crowd of press that was being fed questions and I found that quite funny.

Overall, it was a night to remember for Komikazee and would not have been possible without Jerry Milani and his staff. Again thanks and look for all our video and audio content to come out in fits and starts once we get it edited and cleaned.