IFL FEBRUARY 23

The International Fight League has announced that Miletich middleweight fighter Robbie "Ruthless" Lawler will fight Eduardo Pamplona at the organization's upcoming February 23rd card to be held in Atlanta, Georgia. Lawler, who has a record of 12-4, will be hoping to build upon his recent performance at PRIDE 32 on October 21st, in Las Vegas, Nevada, when he quickly knocked out Joey Villasenor with a highlight reel flying knee at 22 seconds of the first round. Since his back to back UFC losses in 2004, where Lawler lost to Nick Diaz and Evan Tanner at UFC 47 and UFC 50 respectively, the 24 year old fighter has gone 4-1 in the last two years, with his only loss coming to Jason "Mayhem" Miller, via a third round side-choke at Icon Sport 47 on September 2nd last fall.Pamplona will bring a record of 5-1 to the upcoming fight with Lawler, and has not lost a fight since his MMA debut in 2002, where the Brazilian fighter lost by unanimous decision to Sanae Kikuta at Pancrase: Spirit 8. Most recently, Pamplona defeated veteran fighter Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons by unanimous decision at Showfight 5 on November 9th, 2006.

The February 23rd event's IFL team match-ups include the Toronto Dragons taking on the Portland Wolfpack, and the Chicago Red Bears versus the New York Pitbulls. The Red Bears will be making their IFL debut that night, a team that is mostly comprised of Russian fighters who will be coached by Igor Zinoviev.

The IFL is scheduled to hold 11 events in 2007, with the league's semifinals to take place on August 2nd in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and the championship finals slated for September 15th at the Forum, in Los Angeles, California.

Here is the complete line up for the upcoming February 23rd event in Atlanta, which will take place at The Arena at Gwinnett Center.

Dragons (Toronto) vs. Wolfpack (Portland)

155 lb: Wagnney Fabiano (4-1) vs. Ryan Schultz (North Platte, Neb.) (14-9-1)

170 lb: Claude Patrick (6-1) vs. Chris Wilson (11-3)

185 lb: Brent Beauparlant (4-3) vs. Matt Horwich (17-8-1)

205 lb: Wojtek Kaszowski (0-4) vs. Aaron Stark (3-3)

265 lb: Rafael Feijao (2-0) vs. Devin Cole (6-4)

Red Bears (Chicago) vs. Pitbulls (New York)

155 lb: Gocha Markoziya (1-1) vs. Erik Owings (2-1)

170 lb: Mark Miller (5-1) vs. Delson Heleno (7-2)

185 lb: Andrei Semenov (25-8-2) vs. Fabio Leopoldo (3-1)

205 lb: Alexander Zubachev (0-0) vs. Jamal Patterson (2-1)

265 lb: Dmitry Zabolotny (0-1) vs. Bryan Vetell (1-1)

Superfight185: Robbie Lawler (12-4) vs. Eduardo Pamplona (5-1)