(She was a strawweight. He was a heavyweight. She was nasty on the ground. He was once choked out by Mirko Cro Cop, of all people. Life is not the amount of leg kicks you take, it’s the leg kicks that take your breath away. ‘You’ve Got Wrist-Locks 2‘, coming this fall. / Photo by Esther Lin for Invicta.)
We already know that Invicta’s first attempt at selling an Internet pay-per-view blew up in their faces over the weekend. But what exactly went down that night? In an interview with MMAJunkie Radio, Ustream CEO Brad Hunstable took full responsibility for the fiasco, and credited the unprecedented popularity of Invicta’s broadcast for the technical difficulties:
“First off, let me just say how apologetic and sorry we are for what happened for the fans. I’m a big MMA fan. I’ve been in the community for years, and I don’t like it when any of our broadcasters have issues, let alone a sport that I love and am passionate about. I take it especially serious, especially in this case.
Unfortunately what happened was —and the issue was on Ustream’s end, it was not on Invicta’s end — was that believe it or not, our payment system, which is in sort of a beta program at the moment, got overloaded.
There were too many tickets being sold. We’ve done lots of pay-per-views over the last year, from the UFC to the Rugby World Cup to working with World Cup-qualifying soccer matches. The load of tickets being sold, we just hadn’t seen a level of that to date, and that’s ultimately what happened.
(She was a strawweight. He was a heavyweight. She was nasty on the ground. He was once choked out by Mirko Cro Cop, of all people. Life is not the amount of leg kicks you take, it’s the leg kicks that take your breath away. ‘You’ve Got Wrist-Locks 2‘, coming this fall. / Photo by Esther Lin for Invicta.)
We already know that Invicta’s first attempt at selling an Internet pay-per-view blew up in their faces over the weekend. But what exactly went down that night? In an interview with MMAJunkie Radio, Ustream CEO Brad Hunstable took full responsibility for the fiasco, and credited the unprecedented popularity of Invicta’s broadcast for the technical difficulties:
“First off, let me just say how apologetic and sorry we are for what happened for the fans. I’m a big MMA fan. I’ve been in the community for years, and I don’t like it when any of our broadcasters have issues, let alone a sport that I love and am passionate about. I take it especially serious, especially in this case.
Unfortunately what happened was —and the issue was on Ustream’s end, it was not on Invicta’s end — was that believe it or not, our payment system, which is in sort of a beta program at the moment, got overloaded.
There were too many tickets being sold. We’ve done lots of pay-per-views over the last year, from the UFC to the Rugby World Cup to working with World Cup-qualifying soccer matches. The load of tickets being sold, we just hadn’t seen a level of that to date, and that’s ultimately what happened.
I’ve seen the data myself. It’s pretty clear that this was the most popular pay-per-view that we’ve seen on Ustream…We just had not seen a pace of ticket sales at this speed, so we were caught a little bit off-guard.
We don’t expect this to happen again. It’s something that’s a fairly straightforward fix from out standpoint. Unfortunately, we just had never encountered an event of this size and scale. We’ve got to make some changes, and we’ll make those changes over the coming days. We don’t expect any issues moving forward.”
When Shannon Knapp revealed last year that Invicta’s first two events both drew over 200,000 viewers to their free streams, it seemed like a rather dubious claim. (Bellator rarely breaks 200k viewers on MTV2, and they’ve been around since 2009.) But now that Ustream’s CEO is saying that Invicta is blowing away the video site’s previous audiences for UFC and World Cup events (!?), it’s becoming harder and harder to deny: There is an audience for women’s MMA, and Invicta FC has found it. The only challenge that remains is staying in business, and converting online fan interest into actual money.
If they can pull it off, MMA will be changed forever. If not…the tombstone beckons.
(Complete Invicta FC 4 main card broadcast, courtesy of Invicta FC)
Saturday’s Invicta FC 4 event at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, KS, was supposed to be a significant step forward for the all-female promotion, as the main card was presented as an Internet pay-per-view for the first time. (Previously, Invicta’s events had been streamed online for free.) Unfortunately, the broadcast turned out to be a technical fiasco. Due to issues with payment processing and an uncooperative streaming partner, paying customers were unable to log on to watch the event. Even after the paywall was removed — and full refunds were offered to those who had already shelled out cash — the stream was still unreliable.
It was a worst-case-scenario for Invicta FC, whose budding fanbase might be wary of paying for similar broadcasts in the future. In a post-event interview with Ben Fowlkes at MMAJunkie, Invicta president Shannon Knapp seemed to acknowledge that securing a TV deal for her promotion has become more critical than ever, in the wake of their failed iPPV experiment.
As for the fights themselves? They certainly had their moments, although the main card was further cursed by a near-total lack of stoppages. In the headliner, former collegiate wrestler Carla Esparza and late-replacement Bec Hyatt waged war in Invicta’s first strawweight (115 pounds) title fight. Esparza’s relentless takedowns and top control helped her win all five rounds on the judges’ scorecards, but the colorful Aussie didn’t make it easy for her, stinging Esparza with her striking every time the women were on their feet.
The event’s official “Fight of the Night” award went to Alexis Davis and Shayna Baszler, who turned in a fantastic grappling battle that ended in the third round when Davis put Baszler to sleep with a rear-naked choke. It was the only bout on the main card that didn’t go to the scorecards. We suggest that you skip to the 2:02:59 mark of the video above to watch the fight — or just check out these two photos that tell the story pretty well by themselves…
(Complete Invicta FC 4 main card broadcast, courtesy of Invicta FC)
Saturday’s Invicta FC 4 event at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, KS, was supposed to be a significant step forward for the all-female promotion, as the main card was presented as an Internet pay-per-view for the first time. (Previously, Invicta’s events had been streamed online for free.) Unfortunately, the broadcast turned out to be a technical fiasco. Due to issues with payment processing and an uncooperative streaming partner, paying customers were unable to log on to watch the event. Even after the paywall was removed — and full refunds were offered to those who had already shelled out cash — the stream was still unreliable.
It was a worst-case-scenario for Invicta FC, whose budding fanbase might be wary of paying for similar broadcasts in the future. In a post-event interview with Ben Fowlkes at MMAJunkie, Invicta president Shannon Knapp seemed to acknowledge that securing a TV deal for her promotion has become more critical than ever, in the wake of their failed iPPV experiment.
As for the fights themselves? They certainly had their moments, although the main card was further cursed by a near-total lack of stoppages. In the headliner, former collegiate wrestler Carla Esparza and late-replacement Bec Hyatt waged war in Invicta’s first strawweight (115 pounds) title fight. Esparza’s relentless takedowns and top control helped her win all five rounds on the judges’ scorecards, but the colorful Aussie didn’t make it easy for her, stinging Esparza with her striking every time the women were on their feet.
The event’s official “Fight of the Night” award went to Alexis Davis and Shayna Baszler, who turned in a fantastic grappling battle that ended in the third round when Davis put Baszler to sleep with a rear-naked choke. It was the only bout on the main card that didn’t go to the scorecards. We suggest that you skip to the 2:02:59 mark of the video above to watch the fight — or just check out these two photos that tell the story pretty well by themselves…
Let’s have a moment of silence for Hiroko Yamanaka, who has somehow become the go-to opponent for freakish Brazilian sluggers. This time, the lanky ex-dominatrix came face to face with Ediane Gomes, who, as ZombieProphet reminds us, once competed in a vale tudo match against a dude. Gomes mauled Yamanaka in the first round — nearly securing a stoppage via ground-and-pound — but Yamanaka held on until the bell, and began to shift the momentum in the third frame when Gomes ran out of gas. Unfortunately it was too little too late, as Gomes hung on for the unanimous decision victory.
The preliminary card saw significantly more finishes with four of the seven bouts ending within the distance. Notably, Pat Barry’s girlfriend Rose Namajunas won her professional MMA debut, submitting Emily Kagan by third-round rear-naked choke in their strawweight bout. Even as a cornerman, Pat Barry is entertaining and explosive:
Also on the prelims, featherweight* knockout machine Veronica “The Heartbreaker” Rothenhausler — who won her last two amateur fights in a combined ten seconds — was victorious in her pro debut, KO’ing Katalina Malungahu in the first round. Seriously, this woman has freakish power. (Check out the GIF here, via BloodyElbow.) Rothenhausler. Rothenhausler. Rothenhausler. Remember that name, folks.
Sadly, our latest “Hot Fighter Alert” recipient Paige VanZant was routed in a unanimous decision by fellow strawweight Tecia Torres. Though VanZant looked to be in over her head at times, she showed tremendous heart in staying in the fight for all fifteen minutes. Keep in mind that VanZant is still just 18 years old; we definitely haven’t seen the last of “12 Gauge” Paige.
On that note, judging from the weigh-in video, victorious prelim fighter Laura Marcusse-Sanko has “Future Hot Fighter Alert” written all over her.
Props to BabesofMMA and MMAJunkie for turning us on to Paige VanZant, a 2-0 professional MMA fighter who will be facing Tecia Torres on the prelims of this Saturday’s Invicta 4: Esparza vs. Hyatt event in Kansas City.
A model and student-athlete since childhood, the 18-year-old fighter began training in MMA when she was 15, and currently trains at the House of RYU in Las Vegas. Paige began competing this year, first picking up an amateur win in April, then winning decisions in professional matches against Jordan Gaza and Amber Stautzenberger. (She’s also done ring girl gigs for Shark Fights and Ultimate Reno Combat.) According to this Examiner article, Paige likes wrestling and throws, doesn’t enjoy getting hit in the face, and her future goals include opening a restaurant and fighting Cris Cyborg.
Check out lots more of our favorite Paige VanZant photos in the gallery after the jump — as well as four bonus videos of Paige chatting, fighting, and steam-mopping — and follow her life on Facebook and Twitter.
Props to BabesofMMA and MMAJunkie for turning us on to Paige VanZant, a 2-0 professional MMA fighter who will be facing Tecia Torres on the prelims of this Saturday’s Invicta 4: Esparza vs. Hyatt event in Kansas City.
A model and student-athlete since childhood, the 18-year-old fighter began training in MMA when she was 15, and currently trains at the House of RYU in Las Vegas. Paige began competing this year, first picking up an amateur win in April, then winning decisions in professional matches against Jordan Gaza and Amber Stautzenberger. (She’s also done ring girl gigs for Shark Fights and Ultimate Reno Combat.) According to this Examiner article, Paige likes wrestling and throws, doesn’t enjoy getting hit in the face, and her future goals include opening a restaurant and fighting Cris Cyborg.
Check out lots more of our favorite Paige VanZant photos in the gallery above — as well as the four bonus videos below of Paige chatting, fighting, and steam-mopping — and follow her life on Facebook and Twitter.
Bonus videos:
(“Real Girls Kick Ass” video profile from 2011. Props: rmsellars)
(Highlights of Paige VanZant’s first amateur fight against Morgan Hunter. Props: Gofightlive)
(Paige VanZant vs. Jordan Gaza, 6/30/12. Props: Mike Jackson)
(Paige VanZant sells the hell out of the Bissell Steam Mop Deluxe, circa 2010. Hey, we all gotta pay the bills.)
