The 9th InvictaFC strawweight champion was crowned in Denver Wednesday night.
InvictaFC held its 50th numbered event with a history making strawweight tournament that found the two finalists fighting for 30 minutes in one night. It was Valesca Machado whose hand was raised in the main event as she got the nod from the judges 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 over Poland’s Karolina Wojcik. Machedo becomes the third Brazilian to hold the strawweight title and 31st champion in the promotion. The main event was the 100th official strawweight bout in the company’s history.
It was April 28th, 2012 when Cassie Roddish and Meghan Wright stepped into the cage to kick off InvictaFC’s first event. More than 50 events later, the promotion can lay claim to developing the women’s divisions of MMA to the point of being a worldwide phenomena. Many athletes from across the globe have come to InvictaFC to prove their skills.
The promotion has nurtured many stars that went on to be world champions. Many girls have seen competing in InvictaFC as a goal, with several who watched from the beginning making that a reality.
As we head into InvictaFC’s 50th numbered event, let’s look back at the historic milestones the all women’s promotion accomplished.
Once again the promotion looks for it’s next champion in the division as it will hold a four woman tournament November 16 at Reelworks in Denver, Colorado, as previous champion Emily Ducote has vacated the title to fight for the UFC.
It was a major move for Shannon Knapp as her creation InvictaFC was sold to Anthem Sports and Entertainment.
Knapp told us in a phone interview she didn’t come into this decision lightly. Her biggest priority was seeing her athletes get a bigger stage. After a lot of research and negotiation, signing with Anthem was the best possible deal for all involved.
Anthem itself partly owns AXS-TV – Invicta’s new broadcast home. AEG, which is known for it’s event venues and live event productions is also a partner in AXS-TV as is billionaire Mark Cuban.
While Invicta is under the Anthem umbrella, the fans will be getting more of what they have come to love.
The Kansas State Athletic Commission has made available open scoring to all combat sports in 2020 and so far the results have been nothing but great according for all involved.
InvictaFC was the first promotion to request judges give score information to fight teams and the audience on a round by round basis. LFA soon followed suit. The KSAC has given the media results of the initial year of using the system and though there was a small sample size due to limited events in 2020, things are pointing positive.
Last Friday, InvictaFC’s Phoenix Series 3 main event saw the mat painted in red when the night was over.
The five round bantamweight title fight saw Julija Stoliarenko take home the crown in a war against Lisa Verzosa in one of the best fights in promotional history.
On the heels of what was a slugfest, let’s look back at the top 10 fights that made the “cut” of the bloodiest battles in InvictaFC history.
Bellator has a busy weekend and we have Denise Kielholtz on the show talking about her MMA transition from kickboxing and the women’s divisions in central Europe.
With her title match approaching, we talked to Kate Jackson about her fight in Hawaii at Bellator, the growth of British women in MMA, weight cutting, and her preps.
We get an interview with Leslie Smith who is facing Arlene Blenclowe at Bellator next week. We talk about the new additions to the Bellator featherweight division, her training partners, and her continued learning about her fight for labor equality.
Invicta weigh-ins shake up the card, plus I answer questions about the featherweight division and Invicta’s Phoenix Series tournaments.
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