UFC vet Eric “Red” Schafer gets a lot of press around this site. First, Michael Hatamoto covered the opening of his new gym and followed up with a post about his plans to fight again. Then, I wrote about visiting the gym, which had impressive instruction and a great vibe…and I kept getting tapped out by everyone I rolled with, including some dude with a sick inverted guard who does his conditioning at 6 in the morning. (What do those guys put in their drinking water, anyway?!) Most recently, we waxed rhapsodic about Schafer’s mad skillz in our top 10 list of fighters we’d love to see back in the Octagon. The list was received with much fanfare and aplomb. Men cheered. Women fainted. Children waved brightly colored flags. And everyone hit “like.”
Just when we thought the Red Frenzy had died down, it was announced that the submission whiz will be making his return to the cage at XFO 41: Outdoor War 7 in Island Lake, Illinois on September 3rd. This will be Schafer’s middleweight debut.
According to XFO’s Dan Lardy, wrestler Chris Albandia has verbally agreed to step in the cage as Schafer’s opponent. Albandia is an IFL veteran known both for his wrestling and his heavy hands. He is coming off of two 1st round submission losses, the most recent to Jeremy May by triangle choke in March 2010. Before that, he lost to Nathan Coy via arm triangle. Prior to the losses, Albandia defeated Dan Bolden by unanimous decision and won a fight with Jake Ambrose by submission due to strikes.
Chris AlbandiaSchafer is coming off of two unanimous decision losses, the most recent to Jason Brilz in March 2010 and the other to Ryan Bader in October 2009. He hopes to use the fight as an opportunity to show how his skills have evolved. “Chris is a perfect fighter for me to test myself against because he is an accomplished wrestler,” Schafer said, pointing out that his toughest opponents, including his last two UFC losses, have always been to solid wrestlers. “I need to prove to myself that I have fixed that hole in my game. I cannot underestimate him, and I believe all my training to improve over the last year will show that I am a drastically more dangerous man,” he said.
Prior to Schafer’s two most recent losses, he was on a four-fight winning streak, with two 1st round TKO finishes against Antonio Mendes and William Hill and two submission victories against Houston Alexander, who he defeated by 1st round arm triangle, and Ryan Antle, who he defeated by guillotine in just 43 seconds into the first round.
Schafer has been very successful in XFO in the past. “XFO has always been the top show in the Midwest,” he says, “and the UFC talent that it has developed proves it. They have always treated me great and helped me reach the UFC the first time around, so there is no show I would rather fight in to unleash Red Schafer Version 2.0,” he said, adding that Island Lake, IL is not too far from Milwaukee–so he hopes to bring a bus load of family and friends to cheer him on.
Since we at MMA HQ have already used up all of our descriptive adjectives about Schafer in the aforementioned articles, we’ll let the video of a previous XFO match speak for itself. The following is Schafer’s first fight against William Hill, which took place at XFO 9 in January 2006. (An earlier match from XFO 6 in June 2005, in which Schafer won by triangle choke after his opponent actually passed out and then woke up, thinking he was still in the fight, is also available on YouTube.)
Fellow MMA geeks enthusiasts will enjoy this footage both for Schafer’s slick submissions and for the opportunity to view his evolution as a fighter, as his UFC bouts showcase his much tighter clinch game (and improved striking, which we’ve predicted will become even more evident in future fights.)
Word on the street is that Chris Albandia also has much-improved skills, but here’s a very old fight we dug up on the interwebz; his bout against Madice Alejandro which took place back in 2006.
Special thanks to XFO for not only allowing MMA HQ to post their footage, but uploading it especially for us.
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