Fighters Weigh In For IFL Moline

By Ben Fowlkes

Bettendorf, IA – All fighters successfully made weight here Friday, giving the green light to the much anticipated match-ups slated for IFL Moline. The Quad Cities Silverbacks received boisterous support from their hometown crowd at the packed weigh-in event, a preview to the home team advantage they’ll enjoy tonight.

Red Bears coach Igor Zinoviev and Lions coach Ken Shamrock won their respective coin flips and with it, the right to choose the first match. While the Red Bears and Tiger Sharks opted to go straight through the lineup from lightest to heaviest, the Lions and Silverbacks chose to try a little more strategy in the bout order.



Shamrock chose to put his welterweight, Pat Healy, up first against Rory Markham. As Miletich prepared to make his pick, he got a request from his star heavyweight, Ben Rothwell, requesting to fight in the middle of the contest.

“I hate going first,” Rothwell could be heard to say. “I’m a clean up hitter. Put me in the middle.”

What’s really interesting about the bout order for this match is its end. The climax of the evening will be lightweights Bart Palaszewski and John Gunderson, a match many have been waiting for since Gunderson entered the league.

Gunderson and Silverbacks light heavyweight Mike Ciesnolevicz, who will sit this one out with a broken nose, exchanged some heated words in the run-up to the event, with Ciesnolevicz suggesting that Gunderson was out of his league against Palaszewski.

In the superfight of the night, well-known local fighter Jeff “The Big Frog” Curran will take on fellow lightweight Kevin English.

The event gets underway at 8:30 pm est, with a live play-by-play all direct from ringside on IFL.tv. Check back all night to find out how all the action unfolds. Complete results from Friday’s weigh-in, as well as the bout order, appear below.

Tiger Sharks vs. Red Bears

Shad Lierley (151) vs. Mike Corey (154)
Brad Blackburn (170) vs. Mark Miller (170)
Bristol Marunde (185) vs. John Kading (183.5)
Allan Goes (204) vs. Homer Moore (205)
Reese Andy (210) vs. Adam Maciejewski (222.5)

Silverbacks vs. Lions

Rory Markham (169) vs. Pat Healy (170)
Ryan McGivern (184) vs. Dan Molina (184)
Sam Hoger (204) vs. Vernon White (202.5)
Ben Rothwell (265) vs. Roy Nelson (260)
Bart Palaszewski (155) vs. John Gunderson (155.5)

Superfight

Jeff Curran (154) vs. Kevin English (154)