Photos courtesy Dave Mandel/InvictaFC
We now have a complete card for InvictaFC’s 50th numbered event.
A last minute drop and the official draw has changed a few things around as we head into the strawweight championship tournament Wednesday night at Reelworks in Denver, Colorado.
Continue reading InvictaFC 50 Weigh-ins: Tournament Draws & Changes Before the Big EventThe past few fight camps for Arlene Blencowe has been a trek. Having to fly from her native Australia to the United States has been daunting but a worth wild effort in her title match with Cris Cyborg this past October.
After the loss to the champion, Blencowe made the decision to split her camp between her home gym and one of the most famous ones in MMA – Jackson/Winkeljohn in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has been at Jackson’s for eight weeks ahead of her fight with Dayana Silva, which will take place at Bellator 262 on Friday live on Showtime. There was a specific motivation for Blencowe to go to Albuquerque.
Continue reading Arlene Blencowe Looking to Fellow Boxers to Improve MMA Game
After getting a proper commission, Prestige FC has announced their ever first card in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada October 24th.
InvictaFC vet Charmaine Tweet will be fighting MMA in her home province for the first time as she takes on fellow Canadian Bobbi Jo Dalziel.
Tweet (6-5) is coming off a lose to InvictaFC champ Cyborg Justino after winning four of her last five fights. She has notable wins over Amanda Bell and Veronica Rothenhausler.
Dalziel (1-0) is coming off an upset win over Tamikka Brents last year. She began her MMA career in 2008 and was acxtive in the amateur scene in 2009 before leaving the sport in 2010. The Brents fight was her return to the cage.
The match will stream on Go Fight Live for $15 October 24th.
Montana is one of the rare states where there isn’t an athletic commission, but MMA is legal. Fusion Fight League decided to do something about it.
The promotion announced last week they are bringing in an independent commission to sanction all its fights Friday in Billings, Montana. This will make the card the first ever sanctioned MMA event in the state’s history.
The sanctioning comes as the FFL has what will be two of the biggest pro female MMA bouts Montana has seen.
In the main event, MMA Legend and pioneer Tara LaRosa will take on Katie Howard in a catchweight fight.
LaRosa (21-5) has only been stopped once in her 13 plus year career. She went on a 15 fight win streak in five years, having beaten stars such as Shayna Baszler, Roxanne Modafferi , and Julie Kedzie.
Portland’s Howard (3-4-1) is looking for the upset and get what will be the biggest fight of her career.
The other match sees two rising stars at atomweight as Celine Haga takes on Kyra Batara.
Haga (6-12) has made one of the biggest career comebacks in MMA history, having won five of her last 6. Having fought in the far east most of her career, she is now training at the legendary Jacoksn’s MMA gym.
Batara (1-2) is looking for her second win as a pro after back to back heartbreaking decision losses. Having won titles as an amateur, the wrestler wants to look good to make it to the next level of her career.
Among the amateur bouts announced, Sonya Wilson will take on Tasha Fourstar, Sahsa Fourstar will face Sierra Suits, and Jade Buckskin battling Ireland Moran.
Tickets are still available here for those in the Billings area Friday.
The promotion also announced the event will be streamed on Fusionfightleague.com for those not able to come in.
Wombat Sports will be on location for this historic card for weigh-ins on Thursday and the event Friday. Follow us @WombatSports on Twitter for up to the minute coverage.
Bellator MMA continues to expand its featherweight roster with three new signees.
Among them, UFC vet Alexis Dufresne. Dufresne (5-2) has first round finishes in all of her wins. She lost decision in both her UFC bantamweight fights, but never made weight at 135. Going up to 145 should see her at a more competitive and healthy weight.
Like Dufresne, Brazilian Roberta Paim (4-0) has first round finishes in all of her wins. Three by TKO.
France’s Iony Razafiarison (2-0) rounds out the new signees. The ground specialist has returned to MMA after a two year absence with a decision win this past January.
No word on when the fighters will be making their official Bellator debuts.
The influx of support from the business community for female fighters expanded quickly this past year. Two newcomers to the scene have the honor of being co-winners of the WMMA Press 2014 Sponsor of the Year Award.
Sportsfood and MMA Roadhog were awarded the honors Sunday.
Sportsfood is a company that sells electrolyte strips to athletes and has had positive results according to many athletes that use them. Sportsfood designed a program where fighters can get sponsorship dollars with recommendation codes, and had stepped up to help certain fighters who don’t get the recognition from more major brands.
The same can be said of MMA Roadhog, who itself uses its dollars to support fighters who need to be recognized. The MMA and Automotive team stepped up to help several fighters last minute. Their racing team even has a car with InvictaFC sponsorship.
After an eventful 2014, Joanne Calderwood was voted the WMMA Press Awards “Fan Favorite Fight of the Year”. This was the only award that was voted by the public.
Calderwood took the award with 15% of the vote, with Tonya Evinger (11%) and Ronda Rousey (10%) taking second and third respectfully.
The Scottish standout was a contestant on “The Ultimate Fighter 20” and is still undefeated in her MMA career.
We talked to Calderword about winning the award and her 2014.
Wombat Sports: Congratulations on winning WMMA Press Awards “Fan Favorite Fighter”. What does it mean to you to have the fans behind you for this award?
Joanne Calderwood: To be honest it is a surprise, I didn’t know about the voting and hadn’t asked my fans to vote. So I’m really grateful for the people who voted for me and I hope I can continue doing what I do and promoting myself as the fighter I am inside the cage and out.
Wombat: During when TUF 20 aired, you got a lot more exposure to MMA fans who don’t follow the women’s divisions closely. How was it for you to see more people get to see you as a person and as a fighter?
Calderwood: I was really excited for this because I know a lot of the UFC fans are proper hardcore fight fans, so I knew they’d like me cause I am focused and determined and all I care about is fighting.
W.S.: You are coming off a win over Seo Hee Ham in youjr official UFC debut. What was it like for you to go down to the octagon for the first time in front of an UFC crowd?
J.C.: It was a shorter walk than I imagined but I just thought about all the walks to the gym and up those 5 flights of stairs that had me prepared for this fight and under the same roof as my team and under the watchful eye of my coach James Doolan I felt blessed and relieved that the TUF experience was done.
W.S.: I remember when we talked for the first time when you were campaigning to have the local Scottish government to allow you to fight your first MMA bout. Could you have imagined then you would be undefeated and in the UFC?
J.C.: Awesome memory I knew I would still be doing it whether they allowed it or not lol. I didn’t know my journey then I just knew I’d be working my ass off to keep improving as a mixed martial artist and looking to fight the best.
W.S.: Think a lot of fans are looking forward to your next time in the octagon. Anything you’d like to add/thank?
J.C.: Yea hopefully I will have something soon it already feels like ages ago I just wanna get back in there. Thank you to everyone that voted and to my fans that are truly awesome. Thanks for the award, my first award I got from you is framed and still up in the gym proudly.
The pioneers of WMMA are coming to UFC Fight Pass.
The UFC streaming and video archive network announced a deal with Hook’n’Shoot Saturday, which includes the promotion’s 19 years of events, 75 in all, and over 500 matches.
Hook’n’Shoot was the first US promotion to have a sanction women’s MMA bout in 2001 and followed up with 2002’s “Revolution”, the first sanctioned all female MMA event in the country.
The promotion was the start of many of the first generation WMMA fighters, including Megumi Fujii, Tara LaRosa, Julie Kedzie, Miesha Tate, and Roxanne Modafferi. The old school MMA matches will be able to be seen by a new generation of WMMA fans.
According to Hook’n’Shoot owner Jeff Osbourne, we should expect live events from the promotion to stream on Fight Pass in the upcoming future. UFC’s Chief Content Officer Marshall Zelaznik made note that matchmaker Joe Silva requested Hook’n’Shoot to be added to the network.
Also announced are King of the Cage (long time supporter of WMMA), XFO (known for their matches with Felice Herrig), and Pancrase (Rin Nakai’s home promotion beforce signing to the UFC).
Zelaznik explained it would take time to get the fights on the digital network to make sure the quality was up to par, but stated the promotions did a great job preserving their content.
He stated they would start with “the most important matches and events first” and work their way down.
The current ADCC World champion is ready to give MMA a try.
BJJ Black belt and multi-time world champion Gabi Garcia will face Megumi Yabushita at Real 1 MMA in Tokyo, Japan December 23. The DaMadeFerroMMA website broke the news Monday.
Garcia won the ADCC grappling title for the second time last year, and has been the World Absolute BJJ champion the past four years.
Yabushita (19-22) is looking to snap a six fight losing streak.
The fight will be an openweight bout. No word on if it will be streamed.
Miscellaneous News
In action from this morning, Ann Osman defeated Aya Saeid Saber by TKO 3:15 of round 1 at OneFC in Kuala Lumpur.
Jessica Aguilar’s fight with Kalindra Faria is most likely off.
XFC president Myron Molotky was surprised when World Series of Fighting announced the title bout last week, since Faria was under an exclusive contract with the XFC. Faria’s management failed to ask permission from the XFC for the fight, and the XFC is now refusing the bout to happen.
This is a disappointment to fans, who see Faria as the one opponent not signed to the UFC or Invicta that could give Aguilar a run for her money.
WSOF and Faria’s management have yet to make a statement.
Conflict MMA will have an all female amateur card November 8 in Columbia, South Carolina.
In the main event will feature amateur prospects Alyssa Vasquez taking on Alexa Conners for the promotional bantamweight title, while the co-main will see Jennifer Darr taking on Ashley Samples for the vacant strawweight title.
Also announced, Charity Walker will battle Andy Nguyen. We are expecting more fights to be announce this coming weeks.
Molly Dupertuis announced on ProWMMA Now that she will be hang up the gloves after her fight with Nichole Rainey November 22 at V3 Fights in Nashville, Tennessee. A lingering shoulder injury is forcing her to retire but she wanted one more fight, win or lose.
Germany’s Katharina Lehner will take on Sandra Redegeld November 29 at “It’s Lanna Time II” in Bochum, Germany.
For the year, we should be passing 415 pro female MMA fights by the end of October. This will surpass last year’s total and we are projecting 530 fights by the end of the year.
This week we compiled a list of current world boxing champions to help you get to know who’s who. You can see the list here.
Sunday at 9:30 a.m. pst/12:30 p.m. est on the podcast, we will talk to Jessica Richer, who will be participating in the Tuff-n-uff lightweight tournament. We will also discuss training with Team Hurricane Awesome and Liz Carmouche.
You can listen to the podcast here.
Rumors
With the already announced Cyborg Justino on InvictaFC 10, Charmiane Tweet announced she will also be a part of the card. Rumors are Irene Aldana, Vanessa Porto, and Jennifer Maia will also be in action.
We told you last week that Sara McMann stated she was close to getting a match with Miesha Tate. This past week, however, Bethe Correia has challenged Tate. Tate responded she is more than willing to fight her.
Having been doing boxing matches the past year, Jen Tate maybe returning to the cage soon.
Scheduled Fights
Pro MMA
In what was supposed to be a fight at a catchweight of 152, Jozette Cotton and Holly Lawson will now battle at 167 pounds at Bellator in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which will stream on Spike.com. The prelims start at 4 p.m. pst/7 p.m. est.
Cotton came in at 167 pounds, 15 pounds over the agreed weight and will forfeit 20% of her fight purse to Lawson. Lawson decided to take the fight despite the weight difference.
This will be the first female fighter under the Bellator banner since Scott Coker took over as president of the promotion. The last female bouts Bellator held were in March 2013.
ADCC World Grappling champion and undefeated fighter Michelle Nicolini will make her US MMA debut against InvictaFC vet Norma Rueda Center at LegacyFC in Albuquerque, NM which will air on AXS TV.
Nicolini (2-0) has back to back armbar wins in the first round. A black belt in jiu-jitsu, she is considered one of the top submission grapplers on the planet.
Center (2-1) went undefeated as an amateur and won her first two matches before losing to TUF 20 competitor Joanne Calderwood at Invicta. Training at Jackson-Winkeljohn’s MMA, she has a solid wrestling background.
In other pro bouts:
Ammy MMA
In amateur MMA action:
Boxing
In pro boxing action:
Miscellaneous News
X-1 World Events will be holding a card at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii September 26. Three female bouts have been announced featuring some familiar faces.
InvictaFC vet Raquel Pa’aluhi will look to even her record, taking on Tierra Arnold in what will be a featherweight bout. Pa’aluhi is coming off a win over Priscilla White last fall, having snapped a three fight losing streak. Arnold (2-1) is coming off her first loss and is looking to rebound.
InvictaFC signee Rachael Ostovich will try to recover from her first pro loss taking on Misha Nassiri. Ostovich (0-1) was undefeated as an amateur, while Nassiri (2-1) is coming off a loss to Kyra Batara.
In an amateur bout, Jada Pereira will take on Angela Lee.
The event is expected to stream on X1events.com.
DEEP-JEWELS champion Seo Hee Ham will be fighting again in her native South Korea as she will face Ukrainian Alyona Rassohyna at RoadFC August 30 in Seoul.
Ham (13-5) went 7-1 in her past eight fights, having won the DEEP-JEWELS atomweight title last year. She is coming off a win over Shino VanHoose this past April.
Rassohyna (10-3) has won 8 of her ten wins by armbar. The strawweight will drop to atomweight for the bout after losing to InvictaFC title contender Katja Kankaanpaa. A win will gain Rassohyna a position in the atomweight rankings.
No word on if this will be streamed.
Finnish fighter and singing star Suvi Salmimies will look for her second pro win as she takes on Poland’s Roksana Prucnal at Lappeenranta Fight Night 11 September 20 in Kuopio, Finland.
Salmimies won her MMA debut this past May. while Prucnal is coming off her first loss in June.
The XFC has announced they will be doing a flyweight and strawweight tournament again this fall in Brazil.
Top strawweight Kalindra Faria has re-signed with the XFC and will participate the 115 tournament. Undefeated Hungarian Dora Perjes will be joining her along with fellow Brazilian Liana Pirosin.
The promotion also announced Finland’s Vuokko Katainen (2-1) will be a part of the flyweight tournament.
We are expecting more participant announcements in the coming weeks. The tournaments start next month.
The new TUF 20 teaser is out, and it features Rose Namajunas and Tecia Torres. Watch it here.
We will be doing a special podcast Tuesday at 1 p.m. pst/4 p.m. eastern talking to new XFC signee Calie Cutler about her second pro bout, a fight against Lindsay Garbatt in her native Michigan.
Rumors
The TUF 20 fighters will be back on twitter Friday. They obviously can’t say a word of what happened during the show taping, but will be interesting to see their attitudes towards each other.
Scheduled Fight Results
Pro MMA
Amanda Bell got the biggest win of her pro career getting a 37 second KO victory over Marina Shafir at Chaos At The Casino 5 in Inglewood, CA.
The InvictaFC vet caught Shafir with a stiff left hook and followed up with a flurry of rights which dropped Shafir. With the win, Bell goes 2-0 in 2014 and hands Sharfir her first ever loss. You can watch the fight here.
Muay Thai champion Jemyma Betrian made a successful MMA debut, taking only 47 seconds to knockout Hadley Griffith in a 120 catchweight bout. Betrian is someone to look out for in the strawweight division. You can watch the fight here.
Deep Jewels returned for its 5th card in Tokyo, Japan as a few InvictaFC vets took center stage.
Mizuki Inoue gained her first MMA title, submitting Emi Tomimatsu by armbar at 1:33 round 3 to win the 115 DEEP-JEWELS title.
Inoue (8-2) was slow to start, as Tomimatsu was aggressive and won the striking battle in round 1. In round 2, Inoue found her stride in the striking, using the clinch for knees and close quarter punches. Tomimatsu went for the takedown in round 3, Inoue was able to stuff it and took control on the ground, getting the armbar at 1:33.
The win gives Inoue interesting options as a contender for the InvictaFC strawweight title and a possible new signee for the UFC.
Ayaka Hamasaki made a successful move to atomweight in a dominate performance over former Invicta title challenger Naho Sugiyama. Hamasaki (10-1) had gotten a knockdown before taking it to the ground in round 1. Hamasaki got some ground and pound in a scarf hold before trapping Sugiyama’s arm behind her back and raining punches for the TKO win at 4:01. Hamasaki puts herself in title contention for the Invicta atomweight belt.
In other matches on the card:
In other pro matches:
Ammy MMA
In amateur MMA action:
Boxing
In Santiago de Chile, Chile, Carolina Rodriguez successfully defended her IBF bantamweight title getting a split decision over Dayana Cordero. She breaks Cordero five fight unbeaten streak and continues her undefeated streak at 13-0.
In Queretaro, Mexico, Victoria Argueta defeated Alondra Garcia by split decision to retain her IBF minimumweight title. Arguneta is the former WBC Silver champion and has won 5 straight.
Also on the card, Esmeralda Moreno defeated Linda Contreras by unanimous decision and Isabel Millan defeated Selene Lopez by TKO round 4.
In Lazio, Italy EBU flyweight champion Simona Galassi defeated Laetitia Arzalier by unanimous decision. Galassi improves to 21-3-1. Also on the card Italian lightweight champion defeated Monica Gentili by unanimous decision.
In other boxing bouts:
In action from Thursday at Tuff-n-uff, Shannon Reid defeated Autumn King by split decision.
Deanne Bennett has signed to Invicta.
The undefeated flyweight just defeated Colleen Schneider this past weekend, but MMA Rising is reporting Bennett had signed to the promotion a few weeks ago. Bennett also has a win over TUF 18 winner Julianna Pena. She is currently ranked #8 in the Unified rankings.
No word on when she will debut with the promotion.
The International MMA Federation tournament started this week with several female bouts. The finals will happen Saturday at the UFC Expo.
Here are the results so far. (Sorry for no countries or weight classes – they weren’t listed.)
Rachel Abou Abdallah and Florence Berthet received byes.
Grapplers Quest will have a all female superfight tournament Saturday at the UFC Expo in Vegas. It will be no time limit until someone taps. UFC fighter Cat Zingano and pro MMA flyweight Rahcael Cummins are set to take part.
Here is the quarterfinal bouts. Winner will be crowned the same day.
Kickboxing and Muay Thai champion Jemyma Betrian will make her transition to the MMA in August. Betrian (29-2-1 Muay Thai; 35-2-1 overall kickboxing) will face a yet-to-be-named opponent at Choas at the Casino 5 August 10 in Inglewood, CA.
She KOed Christi Brereton in her last match this past month at WCK Muay Thai in Temecula, California. She is currently training with UFC champion Rhoda Rousey. She will be fighting at strawweight.
The main event will feature Marina Shafir taking on Nikita Netjes. No word on if this will be streamed.
Lívia Renata Souza will be staying busy this summer before her fall debut in Invicta. Souza is fighting on Aug 21 against França Godoy at X-Fight MMA in Sao Paulo Brazil.
Cage Warriors did a great retrospective on Rosi Sexton this past week. It covers her promotional career from her first fight to her retirement from the sport this past month. You can watch it here.
On the podcast Sunday at 1 p.m. pst/4 p.m. est, we will be talking to Charmiane Tweet who is looking to return to Invicta, preparing for her boxing debut, and started to invite fighters from across North American to train with here.
You can listen live here on Sunday.
Rumors
InvictaFC 8 is now looking at a September date. Most likely date is September 20, the same day Miesha Tate will face Rin Nakai in Japan. Since that card will be on Fight Pass (and out of the country), would make sense to help promote the channel.
By the looks of it, UFC fighter Leslie Smith maybe an assistant coach for TUF 20. Gilbert Melendez and Smith have trained a great deal together.
Upcoming Fights
Pro MMA
UFC champion Ronda Rousey has her toughest challenge to date (in her own words) against Alexis Davis Saturday at UFC 175.
The fight has become about “BJJ vs. Judo”, as Judo black belt Rousey wants to prove her art is better than BJJ. Davis is a black belt in Japanese and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and feels her skills on the ground will be able to negate the armbar, and she will tap Rousey.
Both weighed in Friday, with Rousey (135) and Davis (135) both coming in on weight.
The match will serve as the co-main event and will be live on ppv Saturday.
On Sunday, Sarah Moras and Alexis Dufresne will make their octagon debuts at The Ultimate Fighter 19 finale in Vegas live on Fox Sports 1.
Moras has a win over TUF 18 winner Juliana Pena, which Pena avenged in the semi-finals of the show. Moras went undefeated as an amateur and finished in all of her pro wins.
Dufresne (5-0) has finished all of her opponents in the first round with her longest match being 2:20. She got a 45 second TKO over Kim Couture in February, and will look to make her bantamweight debut in the UFC.
The match is set to air on Fox Sports 1 on the preliminary portion of the card.
In other pro bouts:
Ammy MMA
In the only ammy fight (besides the IMMA Federation tournament) Jemma Jacques battles Katy Horlick at ICE FC in Manchester, England
Boxing
Shannon O’Connell and Bronwyn Wylie will battle for the vacant WIBA super bantamweight title in Victoria, Australia.
O’Connell (9-3) will be dropping in weight for the bout, having been the WBF featherweight champion. She has five KOs to her credit.
Wylie (3-2) is looking for her first world title.
In other boxing action:
Wombat Sports 