“IFL BATTLEGROUND” LETS VIEWERS MEET WORLD JIU-JITSU MASTER RENZO GRACIE AND THE NEW YORK PITBULLS THIS MONDAY ON MYNETWORKTV
Two Never Before Seen Fights Among Nine Featured, Fans To Vote Online As To Which Is the Dominant MMA System- Gracie Jiu Jitsu or Miletich Fighting Systems; Boxing Champion Holyfield Makes Special Guest Appearance
NEW YORK, March 23, 2007- The International Fight League (OTC.BB: IFLI), the world’s first team-based professional mixed martial arts league, will take fans into the ring and behind the scenes this Monday, March 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT (7 p.m. CT/MT), with world jiu-jitsu champion Renzo Gracie (Holmdel, N.J.) as he trains his Pitbulls team and readies himself for fights against fellow IFL coaches Pat Miletich, Carlos Newton and Frank Shamrock. “IFL Battleground,” the new series chronicling the league, airs every Monday night over-the-air on MyNetworkTV.
The Pitbulls, who train at the Gracie Academy on 30th Street in Manhattan, have rebuilt their 2007 team following a sub-par start in 2006. Featured athletes in and out of the ring in this episode will include:
• Heavyweight Brian Vetell (Elmont, N.Y.), a former collegiate wrestler at Hofstra University who majored in philosophy and recently made his IFL debut.• Light Heavyweight Jamal Patterson (Hoboken, N.J.), a former Colgate University football star who works as a pharmaceutical salesman by day.• Lightweight Eric Owings (Cincinnati) a personal trainer in Manhattan who lived in trained in jiu-jitsu in Brazil for several years and speaks fluent Portuguese.
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield also makes a special guest appearance on the show, as he was in attendance at the recent IFL event in Atlanta. Among the nine bouts featured in the show will be two never before seen fights, one between rising Brazilian star Delson Heleno and Dennis Hallman, and the second one between Brazilian Eduardo Pamplona and UFC veteran Robbie Lawlor.
Viewers can locate their respective local MyNetworkTV affiliate at www.mynetworktv.com/local_stations.html.
The show will also compare the fighting styles of Gracie jiu-jitsu and Pat Miletich’s Miletich Fighting System, and go behind the scenes with both the Pitbulls and the Silverbacks for all the events that led up to their rematch in Moline, Illinois. Fans will also get a chance to vote for their favorite training system online, as “IFL Battleground” presents the various contrasts of the two most dominant camps in Mixed Martial Arts.
Each of the 12 IFL teams for 2007 will compete in three regular season events; the teams with the top four overall win-loss team records will advance to the semi-finals, which will be held on Thursday, August 2, at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J. The 2007 IFL Finals will then be held at The Forum in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 15.
About the IFL
International Fight League™ (IFL) is the world’s first professional mixed martial arts sports league. IFL has its headquarters in New York, NY and offices in Las Vegas, NV. For more information about IFL, please see: www.ifl.tv.