Category: invictaFC

Missouri Athletic Commission Overturns Evinger VS Kunitskaya Bout 

If you’re a Tonya Evinger or a member of TeamFilthy then today’s a good day for you. If you’re however Yana Kunitskaya or anybody in her team not so much.

On November 18th InvictaFC hosted their 20th event. It was a stacked card with what should’ve been a stellar main event for the bamtamweight title. It was however tarnished when it ended it a controversial way.

If you watched the fight you would know that it ended at 1:58 of the first round when Kunitskaya applied an armbar to Evinger getting the submission victory.
However Evinger appealed the decision of the bout earlier this month due to misinterpretation of the rules by referee Mike England. The defending champion used a perfectly legal defense of the armbar by pushing her foot on the face of Kunitskaya to gain leverage for an escape. This was deemed illegal by the referee and in forcing her to move Kunitskaya was able to sink the amber in deeper.

The only way the defense by Evinger would’ve been illegal is if she would’ve striked Kunitskaya with her foot while she was down but at no point did that happen.
So what does this all mean? Well now that the bout has been overturned  Evinger is still the champion and further more her five year undefeated streak is still intact. Here’s what she had to say about the situation.
It is no surprise that this decision is already receiving some backlash. What do you guys think was the right call made? Let us know. One can only assume it’s a matter of time before we see Evinger and Kunitskaya squaring off again.?

Yana Kunitskaya upsets Tonya Evinger at InvictaFC20 but not without controversy

Many MMA fans were left speechless Friday night (November 18th,2016) as a relatively unknown Yana Kunitskaya submitted Tonya Evinger in the first round of the main event of InvictaFC20

Prior to this bout Evinger had been on a 10 fight winning streak, she hadn’t lost in five years and was invicta’s longest reigning Batemweight  champion.

So to say Kunitskaya  win was an upset would be the understatement of the century. 

Kuntitskaya stopped the former champion via standing armbar in the very first round. The win though is laced with controversy and here’s why.

While in the submission Evinger proceeded to step on Kuitskaya’s face in attempt to break free from the submission. Although not an illegal move referee Mike England made Evinger switch positions despite the fact that she was actively defending. 
The feeling is that once  Evinger was forced to switch positions this gave Kunitskaya the leverage she needed to cinch in the submission leaving Evinger no choice but to tap.

Evinger’s manager Jerod David Phillips and head coach Aaron Pena both stated that they will be challenging the referee’s call in hopes that Evinger will get an immediate rematch. It should be noted that Evinger used the very same technique in 2013 against Sarah D’alelio and it was never stopped.

Earlier in the night Mike England was criticized of making a bad call by stopping the fury in the Alexa Conners vs Stephanie Eggers fight to reset the mouthpiece of Eggers. Typically things like that should be done when action is at a stand still. Although Conners walked away with the split decision win, it’s believed she would’ve got the TKO victory had it not been for the mishap.

Regardless of what you feel about the main event though one thing is for sure. We have a new Batemweight champion in invicta and her name is Yana Kunitskaya.

Let us here your thoughts. Was Kunitskaya’s win a fluke? Should Evinger get an  immediate rematch? Was it just a bad call by the referee or was everything justified. Weigh in on the comment section below.

InvictaFC’s Alexa Grasso Set To Make UFC Debut

Some pretty exciting news for MMA fans this afternoon. It was announced jut moments ago via the official Facebook of Alexa Grasso that she will be making her UFC debut on November 5th, 2016 against Heather Jo Clark

Grasso is currently signed with Invicta Fighting champions and is without a doubt one of their top athletes.  Just this past month  Grasso returned to the cage after a 16 month layoff due to a hand injury to take on Jodie Escabal at InvivtaFC18

It was an all out 3 round war and Grasso showed no signs of ring rust. Many people believed with her dominating win she would be next in line to challenge strawweight champion Angela Hill at the next invicta. Whether that’ll happen remains to be seen.

It’ll be interesting to see if she’ll be signed under both banners much like battemweight fighter Jessamyn Duke or Perhaps  Grasso’s invicta days are behind her?

All of these questions should be answered over time but one things for sure, Alexa Grasso will fit right in with the ever growing strawweight division of the UFC

Conor McGregor Breaks His Silence: Issues Statement On His Retirement.

 We knew it wouldn’t be long before the notorious Conor McGregor spoke up about all the retirement  news, I mean after all he’s known for talking right?
The featherweight champion took to his official Facebook this morning saying:

I am just trying to do my job and fight here.

I am paid to fight. I am not yet paid to promote.

I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting.

There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop.

50 world tours, 200 press conferences, 1 million interviews, 2 million photo shoots, and at the end of it all I’m left looking down the barrel of a lens, staring defeat in the face, thinking of nothing but my incorrect fight preparation. And the many distractions that led to this.

Nothing else was going through my mind.

It is time to go back and live the life that got me this life.

Sitting in a car on the way to some dump in Connecticut or somewhere, to speak to Tim and Suzie on the nobody gives a fuck morning show did not get me this life.

Talking to some lady that deep down doesn’t give a fuck about what I’m doing, but just wants some sound bites so she can maybe get her little tight ass a nice raise, and I’m cool with that too, I’ve been giving you all raises. But I need to focus on me now.

I’m coming for my revenge here.

I flew an entire team to Portugal and to Iceland to make my adjustments in preparation and fix my errors I made with the weight and the cardio prep.

With the right adjustments and the right focus, I will finish what I started in that last fight.

I will not do this if I am back on the road handing out flyers again.

I will always play the game and play it better than anybody, but just for this one, where I am coming off a loss, I asked for some leeway where I can just train and focus. I did not shut down all media requests. I simply wanted a slight adjustment.

But it was denied.

There had been 10 million dollars allocated for the promotion of this event is what they told me.

So as a gesture of good will, I went and not only saved that 10 million dollars in promotion money, I then went and tripled it for them.

And all with one tweet.

Keep that 10 mill to promote the other bums that need it. My shows are good.

I must isolate myself now.

I am facing a taller, longer and heavier man. I need to prepare correctly this time.

I can not dance for you this time.

It is time for the other monkeys to dance. I’ve danced us all the way here.

Nate’s little mush head looks good up on that stage these days. Stuff him in front of the camera for it.

He came in with no shit to do that last one. I’d already done press conferences, interviews and shot the ads before RDA pulled out.

Maybe I’ll hit Cabo this time and skull some shots pre-fight with no obligation.

I’m doing what I need for me now.

It is time to be selfish with my training again. It is the only way.

I feel the $400 million I have generated for the company in my last three events, all inside 8 months, is enough to get me this slight leeway.

I am still ready to go for UFC 200.

I will offer, like I already did, to fly to New York for the big press conference that was scheduled, and then I will go back into training. With no distractions.

If this is not enough or they feel I have not deserved to sit this promotion run out this one time, well then I don’t know what to say.

For the record also –

For USADA and for the UFC and my contract stipulations –

I AM NOT RETIRED.

There you have it folks! Straight from the champs mouth, he’s not going anywhere. It’s interesting that this statement comes off the heels of Dana White saying that Conor’s chances of fighting at UFC 200 were very slim. He also went on to say that because of the retirement claims it can at least take up to four months before McGregor is allowed to fight again.

We still have a lot of unanswered questions here. Will we see the McGregor vs Diaz rematch in July? Or perhaps at a later date? If Diaz isn’t fighting McGregor who will be his dance partner? Or will Diaz be pulled from the card entirely? What match up can save UFC 200 when many are under the impression that both Aldo vs Edgar and Tate vs Nunes aren’t big enough to do so.

Perhaps the most important question is what does all of this mean for the featherweight division? Only time will tell.

InvictaFC signs Tiffany Van Soest 

  Tiffany Van Soest, one of the top female Muay Thai fighters and kickboxers in the world, has signed a deal with Invicta FC, sources told MMA Fighting on Thursday. Van Soest has long spoken about crossing over to MMA and now she’ll do so with Invicta, with her debut likely coming this summer.

Van Soest is the former Lion Fight super bantamweight and featherweight champion. The karate black belt also held the WBC Muay Thai international super bantamweight title. Van Soest hails from Southern California, but now lives and trains in Bali
The news comes on the heels of Van Soest signing with GLORY kickboxing, which MMA Fighting reported Wednesday.

Van Soest, 27, is a huge pickup for both promotions, which coincidentally have broadcast deals with UFC Fight Pass. “Time Bomb” will make her GLORY debut at GLORY 30 SuperFight Series on May 13 against Jeri Sitzes in a rematch of their 2012 Muay Thai fight, sources said. The fight will air live on Fight Pass.
Sorce: MMAFighting.com 

The good, the bad and the ugly of being a fight fan: from the prospective of a fan turned friend 

If you’ve been following this site for the past 3 years you know that I’m the resident MMA fan in the crew. It was my accidental stumble into the fight world that allowed us to cover the sport of MMA on our site. Through interviews, social networking and some really crazy shit I found myself falling in love with MMA, even more so then professional wrestling. However if you would’ve asked me if I thought I’d be where I am now a few years ago I would’ve smiled and said “I wish”

This past weekend was InvictaFC16 and thanks to some really cool people I was there in Vegas as it went down live. This marked my second invicta event this year (and there’s many more where that came from) It was a fantastic card with every fight delivering.

For me personally there were lots of happy tears and lots of sad tears. Watching fights live is something I can’t really explain, you get so wrapped into it and you almost feel like you’re the one in the cage. That feeling intensifies when it’s your friend locked in there and in my case that happened twice.

First up was The Happy Warrior Roxanne Modaferri. Prior to the fight I had communicated with her via Twitter and Facebook. She was kind enough to be interviewed by me a few years ago but other than that we didn’t know much about each other outside of social media. That is until this past week of course. I met her for the first time the morning of weigh ins. She embraced me like she knew me for years

A few hours pass and before you know it is was time for the fighters to weigh in. As always Roxy had something awesome up her sleeve. She dressed up as Melina from Mortal Kombat and our friends accompanied her to the stage. It was the moment that stole the show and I was thrilled to be able to say “those guys are my friends”


The fill good moments of the weigh ins didn’t stop for me there though because up next on the scales where Jessamyn Duke and Irene Aldana. Again if you’ve been following this site you know the history with Jessamyn and myself goes deep. It’s been on my bucket list for quite sometime to see her fight live. I made a promise to myself that if I ever got that chance I would make her a sign and well I made  good on that promise.

 The sign reads “You’re my hero Jessamyn Duke” words that carry so much weight. I screamed loud and she looked right over at me and pointed. Later in the week I would find out how much that sign really meant to her and it’s a moment I’ll always be proud to have been a part of.

Friday night was fight night and from the moment I woke up my stomach was in knots. Two of my friends would be going to war that day and all I wanted was the best outcome. Roxanne’s fight was 5th on the card. Seeing her make her way to the cage as Deanna Bennett was staring her down did things to my heart that I didn’t think possible. Roxy ended up getting the split decision win against Benett and as expected my friends and I were overjoyed. She came out and hugged us all and even say in the crowd with us to enjoy the rest of the fights.

I couldn’t let my overwhelming sense of happiness distract me from the next fight though because it was time for Aldana and Duke to go to battle

 I watched on like my life depended on it. It’s a tough pill to swallow but Irene Aldana came out of the exchange victorious as she put Jessamyn Duke away with a TKO victory in the first round. I instantly felt the hot tears run down my face as my friend candy and Aldana’s family celebrated only a few inches from me. My heart broke for Jess and I felt like I too had lost.

The great thing about the fight world though is that as much as it hurts you know you can’t win them all. You know that it’s just another day in the life. You know that your fighter will bounce back. I got to see Jess right after her fight and we had a moment where we both cried. She buried her face in my shoulder. I told her she’d be back, she replied with an “I know” followed by “I’m so happy to have you in my coroner”.


That’s when it hit me…… I love this sport. I love the cheers, the tears, the violence, the sportsmanship, I love it all. I don’t know exactly how or why I got into this sport but I do know it’s where I am now and as long as I have a friend to cheer for I’m not going anywhere.

It’s the first time the my heart experienced pure joy and pure heartache all in the span of 30 mins. This sport will step on your heart more times than you count but it’ll also leave you with a sence of happiness and pride you’ll never be able to shake.

 Invicta16 is an experience I’ll never forget. Not only did it enforce my motto of Loyalty is everything but it also reminded me that life is filled with good and bad moments and those moments shape you into the person you are. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m 100% completely in love with the world of MMA. I’ve gained so many amazing friends and although we may not always agree we know that the fight world created a bond that can never be broken.

It’s one invicta in the books and another one is just around the corner. On May 7th the promotion returns to California as Tonya Evinger will defend her Bantamweight title against Colleen Schneider. A fight that will have me torn. Both Evinger and Schneider have been nothing but kind to me.

I had breakfast with Evinger for 3 straight days while in Vegas. I’ve seen Schneider train and have connected with her because of Shayna and Jessamyn. I already told myself that I’m simply just watching this fight. No matter the outcome one friend wins while the other looses. It’s going to be s bitter sweet moment but one that I’m prepared to face because I love these moments


 If I could give any advice to a fight fan I’ll say this. It won’t always go the way you want it to. Your favorites will fight your favorites and in my case friends will fight friends, but don’t let that discourage you. Live it up. Cheer who you want to cheer. Boo who you want to boo, but know that every man or woman who steps in that cage is human too. One with real feelings and a life to live. They do it because the love what they do. Just like we love what we do! Love the sport, be a smart fan and remember Loyalty is everything.

InvictaFC13 (Final fight card) 

  If you’ve been going back and forth with the idea of subscribing to UFC Fight pass I would say today is the day you make that subscription. That’s because today InvictaFC13 takes place live from the cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

If you know the history of InvictaFC you know that they always put on stellar shows and by the looks of it this fight card tonight will be no different.

Tonight three titles will be up for grabs. Including an Atomweight title bought between Herica Tiburcio(C) and Ayaka Hamasaki, a bout for the vacated Batemweight title between veteran Tonya Evinger and upstart Irene Aldana and of corse the main event of the night for the featherweight title as champion Cris Cyborg defends her title against challenger Faith Van Duin

Also tonight for the first time in nearly a year 4Horsewomen member Marina Shafir makes her return to the cage after suffering a devistating TKO lost against Amanda Bell last August. This will be the first time Marina will be competing under the invicta banner as she looks to redeem herself as she takes on Amber Leibrock.

The full fight can be seen here 

Featherweight Title: Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino (13-1, 1 NC) vs. Faith Van Duin (5-1)

Bantamweight Title: Tonya Evinger (15-5) vs. Irene Aldana (5-1)

Atomweight Title: Herica Tiburcio (9-2) vs. Ayaka Hamasaki (11-1)

Bantamweight: Pannie Kianzad (7-0) vs. Jessica-Rose Clark (5-1)

Atomweight: Amber Brown (4-1) vs. Catherine Costigan (5-0)

Strawweight: Amy Montenegro (6-1) vs. Jamie Moyle (2-0)

Featherweight: Marina Shafir (1-1) vs. Amber Leibrock (0-0)

As you guys can see this card is stacked and it’s sure to be a good one. The $9.99 subscription to fight Pass is more then worth it

The action begins live and exclusively on fight pass at 8pmPT/10CT/11ET

-Vanessa (@GreatLove91)

Michelle Waterson signs with UFC

 The UFC strawweight Division just keeps getting better and better. A little less then an hour ago the UFC announced the signing of Michelle “the karate hottie” Waterson.

Waterson who is (12-4) was one of InvictaFC’s biggest standouts. Waterson is a former atomweight champion under the invictaFC banner. She dropped her title back in December to Herica Tiburcio.

Waterson is expected to make her UFC debut sometime this summer against an unnamed opponent (Ariel Hawani of MMA fighting confirms)

What do you guys think about this announcement? I’m personally ecstatic and think the Karate hottie will do the UFC proud. Sound off in the comments and let us know

-Vanessa (@GreatLove91)

Stephanie Skinner out of Invicta 12 

 

In the sport of MMA and any sport in general injuries are a part of the game. When they happen though they leave athletes and fans alike feeling down but as fans it’s our job to keep the support strong.

This morning the announcement was made by Stephanie Skinner’s opponent Cassie Rodish that Stephanie injured herself Sunday pulling her out of the InvictaFC 12 card that was set to take place this Saturday April 24th. You can read what Cassie said here

 https://www.facebook.com/crodish1/posts/10206528680561927

As said in the status no replacement was found for Cassie to take on so the bout has been scrapped all together.

Stephanie had this to say about her injury as well https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.skinner.180/posts/933844126646116

We here at WrestlingNewsBlog wish Stephanie a speedy recovery and can’t wait till she has the opportunity to get back in the invicta cage. We would also like to inform our followers that the contest to win Stephanie’s signed fight banner will still take place on April 24th the night of invicta. It will be announced on our Twitter feed so if you’re not already following @WrestlingNewsBlog you’re going to want to.

Again here’s to hoping for a speedy recovery for the scrapper 

-Vanessa (@GreatLove91)

WrestlingNewsBlog teams up with Stephanie “the scrapper” Skinner

Skinner MMAAre you a fan of WMMA? Will you be watching InvictaFC 12? Are you a fan of Stephanie the scrapper Skinner? Do you like winning prizes? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions you’re going to love this announcement.

Thanks to the awesome people at Sangre Mgmt & Lubmma this is being made possible. The people who paid $25 to have their Twitter handle on Stephanie’s banner will be entered into a raffle. The person selected during the raffle will win Stephanie’s fight banner signed by the scrapper herself.

Now here’s the catch. The winner will be announced right here exclusively on WrestlingNewsBlog so you’ll have to be following us on Twitter @WrestleNewsBlog. The announcement will be made the night of invictaFC 12 on April 24th, 2015

Stephanie Skinner who is (4-5) will be making her InvictaFC debut against Cassie Rodish (5-4) in an atomweight bout.

InvictaFC 12 will take place live from unicipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. InvictaFC will be available for viewing live on UFC fight pass.

The full InvictaFC 12 fight card is as follows 

Strawweight Title: Katja Kankaanpää (10-1-1) vs. Livia Renata Souza (7-0)
Flyweight: Roxanne Modafferi (17-11) vs. Vanessa Porto (17-6)
Featherweight: Amanda Bell (3-2) vs. Faith Van Duin (4-1)
Bantamweight: Ediane Gomes (10-3) vs. Raquel Pa’aluhi (4-4)
Featherweight: Peggy Morgan (3-2) vs. Latoya Walker (4-0)
Strawweight: Lacey Schuckman (10-8) vs. Jenny Liou (3-1)
Atomweight: Cassie Rodish (5-4) vs. Stephanie Skinner (4-5)
Strawweight: Delaney Owen (3-1) vs. Sharon Jacobson (2-1)
Flyweight: Shannon Sinn (1-2) vs. Maureen Riordon (0-1)
Flyweight: Roma Pawelek (1-0) vs. Sijara Eubanks (0-0)

We here at WrestlingNewsBlog are extramlu excited about this

Partnership. We would also like to take a moment to thank Juan Lanza for coming together with us and allowing us to use the site as a platform for this contest.

 

-Vanessa (@GreatLove91)