Martial Arts Mecca

By: Sarah Aswell

I’ve always been a fan of underdogs, and, more than that, a fan of rising stars. There’s something utterly magical about watching a virtually unknown fighter win his first big bout or watching a young kid learning hard lessons in the ring and coming back a few months later better prepared and more dangerous. It’s like being the first kid in your neighborhood to discover a band. When, a few years down the road, the band’s new number one single is on the radio, you have a feeling in your heart – you were there at the beginning and you recognized something special before anyone else caught on.

For these reasons, I love watching the International Fight League. It’s filled with young talent just starting out in the field. There’s not a lot of ego and not a lot of pandering going on at the events – it’s just men who love to fight and would love to fight for a living.

This season I have my eye on a couple of fighters in the IFL. First and foremost, there’s Chris Horodecki, a 20-year-old Canadian who trains with Shawn Tompkins and Bas Rutten in Los Angeles, Calif. The lightweight looks about 14, but he has rolled through most of the competition and only recently suffered his first loss at the first annual IFL Grand Prix to Ryan Shultz. Even though many who saw talent in him early on have written him off after his perfect record was marred, I think that he’s going to be someone to continue to watch. I mean, seriously: he’s only 20 years old and is already making waves in a national pool of fighters. And he hits hard. I think his first loss will do nothing but motivate him and push him to be an even better fighter.

I am also looking forward to watching Matt Horwich, who trains with Team Quest in Portland, Oregon, with Matt Lindland. Horwich, who is more than a little strange but also completely sincere and likeable, improves incredibly each time I see him fight. Sporting a black trench coat and a Bible, Horwich has been through tough times as a street kid on the west coast and was, in his own words, saved by the coaching of Lindland and by his newfound religion. Over the last year or so, he clawed his way into a place in the middleweight Grand Prix and won the belt after securing a technical knockout against the very dangerous and capable Benji Radach.

Finally, the IFL has two very new fighters this season: Tim Kennedy and Brett Cooper. Cooper was picked up by the IFL in an open tryout session, where he showed promise. Sure enough, during his first preliminary bout with his new promotion, he dominated IFL veteran Rory Markham. Kennedy has also shown a lot of improvement over the last year, recently securing a victory over Elias Rivera in his first match with a decisive first-round TKO.