The IFL hits Vegas on Friday night for the first event in 2008. Those of you with HDNet can see it live at 7:30 PST/10:30 EST. The rest of you will have to either buy a ticket or catch the fights on the internet, though they should be available fairly soon following the show. I’m flying out tonight and as usual I’ll be blogging my experience on the road, which in Vegas always includes plenty of lamentation about cheap hotel buffets and tourists wearing fanny packs.
For a preview of the non-title fights this Friday night, check out this new article on the IFL website. A preview of the three championship bouts is forthcoming.
One of the undercard fights that I’m really looking forward to is the featherweight bout between Dennis Davis and Ian Loveland. These two should be familiar to fight fans in the Northwest, as both got their start with Team Quest in Portland. I saw Davis in a Sportfight show some years back and he was an exciting fighter, to say the least.
What makes this one interesting is that Davis was Loveland’s first MMA coach. He trained him back when Loveland was just getting his start, before Davis left Team Quest for Xtreme Couture, and now both their careers have intersected again. I was surprised that when I talked to Ian Loveland about this match he seemed to have a pretty irreverent attitude about fighting Davis. I don’t know if it was bravado or not, but he said he’d taken Davis apart in a recent training session and felt confident that he’d do the same thing in the ring.
When I mentioned this to Davis, he freely admitted that, yes, Loveland had gotten the best of him in a training session, but that it didn’t mean anything. He said he’d been out of shape after not training for a few months, and that if Loveland was basing everything off that one afternoon in the gym, he was in for a surprise.
Personally, I love the dynamic at work in this fight. Teacher-versus-former student is a great theme. Usually it only happens in the movies. I can’t wait to see how this one plays out in real life on Friday night.
The Fighting Life 