The International Fight League will begin it’s 2008 season on February 29^th, with a slate of changes in how the fights are promoted and organized. With the leap year start, the IFL will change formats in how teams battle. Instead of fight squads representing cities, instead they will represent the fighting camps they train for.

The Champions crowned in last year’s Grand Prix will survive into the new format, which will mix the championship bouts in with the team concept. Three of those champions will defend their belts in Las Vegas on February 29^th, Matt Horwich, Roy Nelson and Ryan Shultze. The fighting mega event will also feature competitors from Matt Lindland’s Team Quest versus Ken Shamrock’s Lions Den, as well as Team Xtreme Couture versus Mario Sperry’s MMA Top Team.

The IFL felt that camp based fighting would lead to fans relating to the fighters more. Along with the flexibility of mixing in championship fights, new IFL CEO Jay Larkin believes the new format will lead to more fan support, as the previous system led to little support for both the teams and the individual fighters.

With all the change, even some of the IFL’s best fighters are not returning for the new season. Of the five fighters of the victorious New York Pit Bulls who fought at the World Championship in Hollywood last September, none are on 2008 teams as of this writing. Andre Gusmao, who sealed the deal for the Pit Bulls by knocking out Mike Ciesnolevicz in less than one minute, is still under IFL contract, but is not affiliated with any current fighting camp.

Ricco Rodriguez, the former UFC Champion, who lost to Ben Rothwell in last year’s World Championship, is off to Showtime’s EliteXC. He is set to fight Antonio “Big Foot” Silva for that promotion’s heavyweight title on February 16^th in Miami. Rodriguez is best known for his victory over Randy Couture that gave him the most prestigious belt in MMA.

The New York Pit Bulls out muscled the Quad City Silverbacks to win the International Fight League World Championships, held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood on Thursday night, September 20^th. The event was fast paced and close to the end, until Brazilian light-heavyweight Andre Gusmao scored the decisive knockout in the fifth and final bout.

The IFL is a team fighting event, where two teams each field five fighters in different weight classes. The team that wins the most of the five fights is the winner. The Pit Bulls are led by Renzo Gracie, one member of the most famous family in Mixed Martial Arts and a master in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Gracie’s squad went undefeated throughout the entire 2007 season.

The World Championship was tied at two wins apiece, when Gusmao faced the Siverback’s Mike Ciesnolevicz in the deciding bout. Gusmao, undefeated in the IFL, scored a stunning technical knockout just 53 seconds into the first round to seal the deal for the Pit Bulls.

Rolles Gracie made his professional debut in the Championship, winning his heavyweight bout in just one minute and 49 seconds. Gracie applied the rear naked choke to force the previously undefeated Sam Holloway to submit. Rolles is the son of the late Rolls Gracie, the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu master who died in a tragic hand gliding accident in 1982.

The IFL World Championship ended a remarkable recovery for the Renzo Gracie led Pit Bulls, who were winless in the 2006 season. It was also a little bit of revenge, as the Pit Bulls fell to the Silverbacks in a September 2007 event.

From IFL.tv

The Pitbulls’ Heleno (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) began things with a welterweight victory over Jake Ellenberger (Omaha, Neb.), who was filling in for injured Rory Markham for the Silverbacks. In an entertaining battle, Heleno and Ellenberger traded blows and submission attempts before Heleno got the last word, catching his Silverbacks opponent in an armbar to give the New Yorkers a 1-0 lead.

Pitbulls lightweight Taurosevicius (New York) scored a surprise second-round submission victory, also by armbar, over Bart Palaszewski (Wonder Lake, Ill.) to double his team’s advantage to 2-0. Heavyweights Ben Rothwell (Milwaukee, Wis.) of the Silverbacks and former UFC champion Ricco Rodriguez (Staten Island, N.Y.) of the Pitbulls slugged it out for three rounds in another exciting battle, with Rothwell winning the unanimous decision to shave the Silverbacks’ deficit to 2-1.

Middleweight Ryan McGivern (Bettendorf, Iowa) evened things at two wins apiece with a convincing second-round TKO over Fabio Leopoldo (Sao Paulo, Brazil), setting the stage for the winner-take-all light heavyweight bout. Gusmao (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) came out swinging from the bell, landing a series of nearly uncontested blows against Mike Ciesnolevicz (Williamstown, Pa.) before the referee stopped the bout less than a minute into the first round.

The next IFL event is the 2007 World Grand Prix semifinals on Nov. 2 at the Sears Centre in Chicago. The top 20 athletes, four at each weight class, will compete for the first-ever IFL Championship belts.

A Mixed Martial Arts event, the IFL features aspects of Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, wrestling and just about every other fighting technique out there. The teams in the finals are the Quad City (Iowa) Silverbacks and the New York Pit Bulls. The teams are coached by two very familiar names in MMA, with Renzo Gracie leading the Pit Bulls and Pat Miletich coaching the Quad City Squad.

The Quad City Silverbacks are the defending IFL Champions and have only lost one match this season, which they avenged in the semi-finals when they faced off against the Los Angeles Anacondas. Militech is one of the most storied fighters in MMA, both in the ring and as a trainer. Fighters under his tutelage include Matt Hughes and Tim Sylvia.

Militech won the very first UFC lightweight tournament at UFC 16 and the first lightweight title match at UFC 17 against Mikey Burnett. At that time, the Lightweight division was for all fighters under 200 pounds. Militech held that title until UFC 31, where he lost to Carlos Newton.

Gracie comes from the most famed family in MMA. The Gracies’ style of Brasilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) dominated MMA in the 90’s, with Royce taking most of the headlines as he defeated larger opponents by taking them to the ground and making them tap. Renzo survived 11 fights before he was defeated by Kiyoshi Tamura in the King of Kings 1999 Final. Make sure to check in with the Martial Arts Times for more updates on the IFL World Championships.