In front of a loud hometown crowd, the Portland Wolfpack enjoyed a relatively easy time against the Los Angeles Anacondas. Outside of the exploits of baby-faced 19-year-old Chris Horodecki (Pictures), Bas Rutten (Pictures)’s team fell flat tonight.
However wins by Wolfpack fighters Chris Wilson, Matt Horwich (Pictures) and Aaron Stark (Pictures) guaranteed a trip to the Mohegan Sun for Matt Lindland (Pictures) and his boys. A meaningless victory by Krysztof Soszynski (Pictures) over Devin Cole (Pictures) made the final 3-2 tally seem closer than it actually was.
Having taken an early lead on the strength of Horodecki’s win, L.A. gave it back when Wilson scored a unanimous decision over Jay Heiron. This result, plus an alleged tap by Stark against Alex Schoenauer (Pictures), had Anacondas head coach Bas Rutten (Pictures) suggesting it should have been his team, not Lindland’s, which deserved to advance to fight the Silverbacks on December 29.
While Heiron was competitive with Wilson, even scoring a second round knockdown, it was fairly clear to ringside observers that the Wolfpack welterweight did more than enough to take a decision, which he did by a 29-28 tally on each judge’s card.
“I just felt like pushing through it when I was tired,” Wilson said. “We were both tired in this fight.”
With the teams holding one win apiece, middleweights Mike Pyle (Pictures) and Matt Horwich (Pictures) exhibited beautiful ground fighting throughout their pivotal bout.
Pyle, a former WEC champion at 170 pounds, looked good at 185, but Horwich matched him move for move on the floor. Eventually, the fast-as-molasses Horwich sunk in a fight finishing rear-naked choke 62 seconds into round two.
Similar to the Silverbacks-Dragons tilt, it was a light heavyweight, Aaron Stark (Pictures), who clinched it for his team — though not without some controversy. Fighting veteran Alex Schoenauer (Pictures), Stark found little trouble on the mat against the lanky light heavyweight until the former The Ultimate Fighter 1 cast member maneuvered for a leg-lock.
From his corner, Rutten said he heard Stark yell and tap. At the post-fight press conference, however, Stark denied tapping and suggested all one needed was a review of the tape to see who was telling the truth.
Regardless, it appeared referee Yves Lavigne interfered while Schoenauer applied pressure to Stark’s left ankle. “Alex thought the referee hit him to stop it, which would happen right away,” Rutten said. “And he let go. It’s a big lesson for us. We will never let things go anymore.”
Stark physically overwhelmed Schoenauer to the end, when he muscled what looked like a modified guillotine choke from the top.
Schoenauer, who fell to 2-2 in the IFL, writhed in pain on the blue canvas after tapping while clutching to the ribs on his right side. He was taken to the hospital and according to the IFL might have injured ligaments between his ribs.
Rounding out the Anacondas-Wolfpack tilt, Soszynski weathered an aggressive Devin Cole (Pictures) before finishing him with an armbar from the guard at 1:14 of the second period.
“I’m not angry,” said Rutten of the team result. “I actually feel pretty good because deep down I feel that we won.”