Just three months after its
first world championship bout, women’s Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Invicta
Fighting Championships will return to Memorial Hall in Kansas City and crown a
champion in its strawweight (115 pounds) division after undefeated sensation Claudia
Gadelha (9-0) of Mossoro, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil battles streaking star
Carla Esparza (8-2) of Redondo Beach, Calif. for the title in the main event of
a 12-bout fight card on Saturday, Jan. 5.
In the bantamweight (135
pounds) co-main event, crowd-pleasing submission ace Shayna “The Queen of
Spades” Baszler (15-7) of Sioux Falls, S.D. will go to war with fellow
top-ranked star Alexis Davis (12-5) of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada.
Tickets, priced from $25, for
the Invicta FC 4: Gadelha vs. Esparza women’s MMA event, go on sale Monday,
Nov. 26 at Memorial Hall box office (913-549-4853), online at Ticketmaster.com
and InvictaFC.com and by phone at 800-745-3000.
Following her second round
(2:19) TKO (punches) of Kaitlin Young at Invicta FC 3 on Oct. 6, Leslie “The
Peacemaker” Smith (4-2-1) of Pleasant Hill, Calif. will return to action to
face a bantamweight opponent to be determined.
Power-punching KO artist
Amanda “Lioness of the Ring” Nunes (7-2) of Salvador Bahia, Brazil will take on
submission specialist Sarah “The Monster” D’Alelio (6-3) of San Jose, Calif. at
bantamweight.
JEWELS star Hiroko Yamanaka
(12-2) of Kisarazu, Japan will battle Invicta FC 3 winner Ediane Gomes (8-2) of
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. in a featherweight (145 pounds) contest.
In the event’s opening main
card bout, undefeated Joanne Calderwood (4-0) of Glasgow, Scotland will square
off with Invicta FC newcomer Bec Hyatt (4-1) of Brisbane, Australia at
strawweight.
After scoring her second
consecutive, five-second KO on July 8, Veronica Rothenhausler (0-0) of Reno,
Nev. will make her much-anticipated professional debut on the Invicta FC 4
undercard against fellow heavy-handed featherweight competitor Katalina
Malungahu (2-1) of Las Vegas, Nev.
Claudia Gadelha vs. Carla
Esparza
Just 23 years old, Gadelha
boasts three world championships and seven national titles in Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu competition and has submitted seven of her first nine professional
MMA opponents. An injury kept the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt sidelined for
the entirety of 2011 but, on April 20, she returned to action, earning a
unanimous decision win over Valerie Letorneau in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.
Gadelha returned to her homeland and scored a first round (1:35) TKO (punches)
on Adriana Vieira on Sept. 21.
The 25-year-old Esparza has
been gaining momentum, winning her last three fights. Her last two victories –
a second round (4:28) TKO (punches) of Sarah Schneider and a first round (2:53)
TKO (punches) of Lynn Alvarez – came inside the Invicta FC cage on July 28 and
Oct. 6, respectively. To date, three of Esparza’s professional wins have come
by way of (T)KO and three by way of submission.
Shayna Baszler vs. Alexis
Davis
The 32-year-old Baszler lit
up Memorial Hall for the second time on an Invicta FC show on Oct. 6,
outworking D’Alelio on the ground and securing a rear-naked choke that forced
D’Alelio to tap out at the :37 mark of the second round of their matchup. A
fearsome grappler, Baszler has earned the respect of the fight world by earning
14 of her 15 victories with submissions, including her patented hold that she
dubbed the “shwing.”
Davis, a 28-year-old black
belt in both Japanese Jujutsu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, has been ranked as high
as the No. 3 bantamweight female fighter in the world by the Unified Women’s
MMA Rankings. In her last effort at Invicta FC 2 on July 28, Davis submitted
Japanese star Hitomi Akano with a rear-naked choke in the second round (3:41)
of their matchup
Amanda Nunes vs. Sarah
D’Alelio
Since making her pro debut in
March 2008, Nunes has established a reputation as a ferocious power-puncher.
The 24-year-old, who began her boxing training at age 16, exploded onto the
national MMA scene in The U.S. on Jan. 7, 2011, demolishing Julia Budd with a
barrage of punches just 14 seconds into their live, Showtime-televised fight.
Nunes made her Invicta FC debut on July 28, submitting Raquel Pa’aluhi with a
rear-naked choke in the first round (2:24) of their bout.
D’Alelio has competed on all
three Invicta FC cards, thus far. The 31-year-old submission ace, who has
earned five of her six wins by way of submission and the sixth by TKO, will
look to return to the win column after a valiant performance against Baszler.
D’Alelio forced Vanessa Mariscal to tap out from a barrage of punches in the
second round (3:19) of their meeting at the historic, first Invicta FC event on
April 28, and tapped out Vanessa Porto with a rear-naked choke in the first
round (3:16) of their Invicta FC 2 bout.
Hiroko Yamanaka vs. Ediane
Gomes
Nicknamed “Incomplete Queen”
and “Cat’s Eye,” Yamanaka, is a former open weight champion in Japan’s
now-defunct Smackgirl MMA promotion and the No. 7 ranked featherweight
according to the Unified Women’s Mixed Martial Arts Rankings. The 34-year-old
Muay Thai and submission grappling specialist, put together an eight-fight win
streak between Nov. 2008 and July. 2011, and emerged a star in Japanese
promotion JEWELS during that span.
Gomes is a 31-year-old
submission expert and member of vaunted South Fla.-based fight squad American
Top Team. Hardened in her native Brazil where amateur level competition is
non-existent, Gomes was victorious in her first five professional fights – four
by way of armbar submission and one via TKO (punches). At Invicta FC on Oct. 6,
she forced the highly-touted Malungahu to tap out from a rear-naked choke in
the first round (4:19) of their undercard bout.
Joanne Calderwood vs. Bec
Hyatt
Calderwood is an explosive,
26-year-old national Muay Thai champion in Scotland, who has successfully
transitioned to the sport of MMA by going unbeaten in her first four pro
starts. On Oct. 6, she reeled off her fourth victory at Invicta FC 3, KO’ing
Ashley Cummins with a brutal knee strike to the body in the first round (3:13)
of their matchup. Calderwood’s performance earned her “KO of the Night” honors
from the promotion.
Since suffering a defeat in
her pro debut on Oct. 15, 2011, the 23-year-old Hyatt has been on fire, winning
four consecutive fights. In her last start on Oct. 20, Hyatt, the first
Australian competitor to sign with Invicta FC, finished Christina Nicole
Tatnell just 37 seconds into their matchup with a flurry of punches.
The six-bout preliminary card
will be capped off with an atomweight (105 pounds) matchup between Stephanie
Frausto (4-4) of Cincinnati, Ohio and Cassie Rodish (3-3) of Des Moines, Iowa.
Unbeaten Tamikka Brents (1-0)
of Springfield, Illin. will take on Amanda Bell (0-0) of Medford, Ore. at
featherweight.
Jodie Esquibel (2-0) of Albuquerque,
N.M. and Liz McCarthy (1-0) of Tigard, Ore. will square off at atomweight.
Emily Kagan (2-0) of
Albuquerque, N.M. will put her undefeated record on the line against Rose
Namajunas (0-0) of Milwaukee, Wis. In a strawweight matchup.
Paige Van Zant (2-0) of
Sparks, Nev. will face off with Tecia Torres (1-0) of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. at
strawweight.
About Invicta Fighting
Championships:
Invicta Fighting
Championships (www.invictafc.com) is a world championship Mixed Martial Arts
(MMA) fight series dedicated to providing female athletes with a major platform
to hone their skills on a consistent basis. Founded in 2012 by longtime MMA
executive Shannon Knapp and sports aficionado Janet Martin, Invicta is
committed to pioneering the future growth of women’s MMA by promoting the best
possible matchups between female competitors and identifying and developing
future superstars of the sport.
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