Dave Mandel / Invicta FC
Pearl Gonzalez will fight Erin Blanchfield for flyweight gold and Montserrat Ruiz and Emily Ducote will compete for the strawweight title.
Invicta FC have announced that their next show, Invicta FC 43, will go down on November 20 in Kansas City, KS. The promotion also revealed that the event will feature two title fights.
In the main event the Invicta FC flyweight championship will be on the line as Pearl Gonzalez takes on Erin Blanchfield. That title has been vacant since former champ Vanessa Porto signed with Bellator MMA.
The co-main will be for the vacant Invicta FC strawweight championship and will feature Emily Ducote vs. Montserrat Ruiz. That belt has been vacant since Kanako Murata signed with the UFC.
Gonzalez (10-5) trains out of San Diego alongside Bellator flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane and two time UFC title challenger Liz Carmouche. She’s also a purple belt in 10th planet jiu jitsu. The 34-year-old had a brief stint with the UFC in 2017. There she lost to Cynthia Calvillo and Poliana Botelho. She joined Invicta a year later and has gone 4-2 with the promotion.
She began her Invicta tenure with three wins in a row. That set her up for her first Invicta flyweight title fight, which she lost to Porto in 2019. Since then she has beaten Brogan Walker-Sanchez in Invicta, submitted Lilian Marquez at the Combat Jiu-Jitsu Worlds and, back in Invicta, dropped a decision to recent UFC-signing Miranda Maverick.
Blanchfield (6-1) is just 21-years-old. She has trained at the Renzo Gracie Academy in New York and holds a purple belt in BJJ. All but one of Blanchfield’s pro fights have been inside the Invicta cage. Her only loss was to current UFC fighter Tracy Cortez, in a narrow split decision.
In Invicta Blanchfield holds wins over Kay Hansen, Victoria Leonardo and Brogan Walker-Sanchez.
Ducote (9-6) bested UFC veteran Juliana Lima last time out, at Invicta FC 40 in July. Prior to that she lost an Invicta FC strawweight title fight to Kanako Murata after a very close fight. Before fighting for Invicta Ducote had a long run in Bellator, including a losing effort to Macfarlane for the then-vacant flyweight title.
Ruiz (9-1) put her division on notice at Invicta FC 41 in July, when she blasted through Janaisa Morandin and submitted her with an unorthodox keylock. That win came off the back of the only loss of her career, a unanimous decision defeat to Danielle Taylor in her Invicta promotional debut.
Invicta FC 43 will take place behind closed doors and will be exclusively broadcast over UFC Fight Pass beginning at 8 PM ET.