By Carlin Bardsley
Invicta FC’s sophomore event takes place Saturday night from Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Ks., and available to the world via a free live stream at invictafc.com. Invicta is the brainchild of Shannon Knapp, who has worked with a laundry list of promotions including the UFC, IFL, Affliction and more. She also once served as Bas Rutten’s manager, earning the nickname in the industry of “BLS” or “Bas’ little sister.”
Knapp saw an underserviced segment of mixed martial arts and has managed to turn that into a promotion that has grown exponentially in a very short time in terms of fan interest, almost all of it coming from word of mouth.
UFC president Dana White continues to shun the idea of women fighting in the UFC, leaving Strikeforce as the only viable place for a female mixed martial artist to ply her trade. With Strikeforce no longer running Challengers events, that leaves precious few spots on their cards open for women’s fights. Knapp felt female fighters deserved better, and thus Invicta was born.
The reaction has been almost uniformly positive. The debut event featured stars like Liz Carmouche and Marloes Coenen and the event drew over 200,000 viewers on the live internet stream.
Knapp doesn’t even need to seek out talent as much as your average promoter would. Top-ranked female fighters are often the ones who initiate contact with her. The promotion has a stable home in Kansas City, occupying the same venue that houses Titan Fighting Championships, with plans to run shows in other areas as growth increases. As it stands, Knapp has assembled a list of talent that reads like a who’s who of women’s MMA.
Saturday’s event is headlined by Shayna (Queen of Spades) Baszler taking on Sara McMann. Baszler is a Josh Barnett-trained fighter who gained fame for her “shwing” submission, a pseudo-chicken wing manoeuvre she developed in training. Baszler comes into the fight riding a four-fight win streak and apart from the “shwing” possesses an array of deadly submission holds with 13 of her 14 wins coming via tapout.
McMann for her part is a former Olympic silver medallist in freestyle wrestling, which instantly draws comparisons to another former Olympic medallist, current Strikeforce champion Ronda Rousey. But her style is more like that of Team Quest leader and former Olympic medallist himself, Matt Lindland. McMann prefers to use her wrestling to control the action and grind her opponents down. Her record currently sits at 5-0 with her most recent victory coming over Japanese WMMA legend and fellow Invicta 2 participant Hitomi Akano.
The card also features a number of Canadian fighters. Strikeforce veteran Alexis Davis out of Port Colborne, Ont., takes on the aforementioned Akano. Davis was within striking distance of the next shot at Rousey but lost a close decision in a thrilling fight against B.C.’s Sarah Kaufman. Prior to that, the Cesar Gracie jiu-jitsu brown belt had put together a three fight win streak, including two in Strikeforce over Amanda Nunes and Julie Kedzie. Akano, for her part is a revered figure in women’s MMA, having earned her reputation in the Japanese Smackgirl promotion before coming to North America and competing in Strikeforce. The 37-year-old judo practitioner, known as the “Girlfight Monster” hopes to prove she is still at the top of her game with a win over Davis.
Port Moody, B.C.’s Julia Budd also makes her Invicta debut on the card, taking on Swedish Elina Nilsson. Budd was last seen by MMA fans getting her arm bent at an improbable angle by Rousey in November, but she is a former Canadian Muay Thai champion and looks to showcase her kickboxing skills against Nilsson. The Gibson’s MMA fighter even holds a kickboxing victory over former women’s MMA “it girl” and current action movie star Gina Carano. The match-up against Nilsson should prove to be a slugfest, as Nilsson shares Budd’s striking background.
On the undercard, Surrey B.C.’s Cheryl (Kid Kaos) Chan will be making her professional MMA debut against Jocelyn (Lights Out) Lybarger. Chan trains out of the Mendoza FIT team in Surrey and compiled a 6-2 amateur record fighting a crowd-pleasing, aggressive style on Canada’s west coast, with her only two losses coming against much larger opponents. Lybarger, as her nickname suggests, also loves to throw down. With both women looking to make a statement in their pro debuts, this has the potential to be the sleeper fight of the night.
For fans who were disappointed at the results of shelling out their hard-earned money for what turned out to be a lacklustre main card at last weekend’s UFC 149, Invicta could be just the ticket. The price is certainly right, and the women collectively feel they have something to prove to the MMA world. Come Saturday night, they have the MMA spotlight to themselves and they’ll be looking to show the men how it’s done.
Carlin Bardsley is a writer for MMASucka.com and the host of a daily MMA radio show on NextSportStar.com.
