As the pandemic continues, we bring you some great content.
A returning guest, Natalya Speece is currently 4-1 and is looking to turn pro in July. The southern California native has made the trip to New Mexico to train at the legendary Jackson-Winkeljohn gym to hone her stills from some of the best coaches and athletes.
Speece was also given a preview copy of “Girls, Grappling, and Grit”, which we are launching on demand through this website for $5. After the first 1000 rentals, part of the proceeds will got to WrestleLikeaGirl.org and BeatThe Streets.org. You can rent the documentary by going here.
The big story in the amateur women’s divisions this year was international growth.
In 2018, the U.S. outpaced the world in terms of amateur fights, but the world flipped the script this year with 161 more bouts. While the U.S. is still country with the most total bouts (393), Bahrain comes in second. Those fights were a part of the IMMAF World Championship tournaments. Coming in third was England with 63. The surprises were Poland and Italy tied for third, outpacing perennial top 3 country Brazil. A major reason was Italy held the IMMAF European Championships, and Poland’s ALMMA semi-monthly amateur tournaments. One Championships held their own world amateur championships in 2019, but were not included in the statistics this year since we could not find complete results. Continue reading 2019 Amateur Women’s Division Stats by the Numbers→
We saw a boom in 2019 in terms of the growth of the women’s divisions as a whole.
After a somewhat stagnate 2018, which only say a growth of seven fights compared to 2017, 2019 saw an increase of 194. That is the biggest jump we have had in the history of the divisions. (We have statistics dating back to 2007).
Recently becoming the first Mexican born NWA women’s champion, Thunder Rosa has wrestled around the world. On top of that, she transitioned to MMA last year in Combate Americas.
We talked to Rosa about her wrestling and MMA training.
With all the news this past weekend, one item may have been incidentally flew under the radar, but will be important for the future of the women’s divisions.
The International MMA Federation has formed a Women’s Committee, which held its first meeting on International Women’s Day. The committee of four women will help facilitate and oversee projects to expand women and girls in the sport internationally in the coming years not only in the amateur, but pro ranks as well.
The IMMAF itself has been a catalyst for the expansion of the women’s divisions internationally over the years, with stars like Minna Grusander and Sunna Davidsdottir making their way into the professional end of the sport.
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.
Wombat Sports 