Roxanne Modafferi has been granted the unexpected opportunity to fight for a UFC title this weekend, albeit as a result of unfortunate circumstances Sijara Eubanks was hospitalized on Thursday morning which means she is out of her inaugural UFC flywei…
Roxanne Modafferi has been granted the unexpected opportunity to fight for a UFC title this weekend, albeit as a result of unfortunate circumstances Sijara Eubanks was hospitalized on Thursday morning which means she is out of her inaugural UFC flyweight title fight this Friday at the TUF 26 Finale in Las Vegas. Eubanks’ hospitalization was […]
Tomorrow’s (Fri., December 1, 2017) The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 26 Finale from the Park Theatre in LasVegas has a new main event. The UFC announced via MMA Junkie that longtime competitor Roxanne Modafferi will replace TUF 26 finalist Sijara Eubanks and battle Nicco Montano in the main event bout for the inaugural UFC women’s flyweight […]
Tomorrow’s (Fri., December 1, 2017) The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 26 Finale from the Park Theatre in LasVegas has a new main event.
The UFC announced via MMA Junkie that longtime competitor Roxanne Modafferi will replace TUF 26 finalist Sijara Eubanks and battle Nicco Montano in the main event bout for the inaugural UFC women’s flyweight title after Eubanks was hospitalized with complications surrounding her weight cut earlier today.
The UFC issued an official statement on the last-minute switch:
“Due to medical issues, Sijara Eubanks, was hospitalized Thursday morning and has been pulled from her bout against Nicco Montano at Friday’s The Ultimate Fighter Finale. Stepping in for Eubanks to fight in the inaugural UFC women’s flyweight championship bout will be Ultimate Fighter 26 semifinalist Roxanne Modafferi.”
Modafferi was eliminated from by Eubanks in the semifinals of the show, and was set to take on former Invicta flyweight champ Barb Honchak. Honchak will face bantamweight veteran Lauren Murphy, who was on standby for the card.
Modafferi issued a statement online about her move up to the main event, noting that she was excited but also concerned for former opponent Eubanks’ health:
I’m excited for the opportunity. I also hope Sijara gets better quickly. A weight cut to the point of hospitalization can be serious. https://t.co/l0pjDgV4mw
Eubanks had previously struggled to make the division’s 125-pound limit during the show, but her hospitalization comes as a surprise considering she had a month since the show ended to get down to championship weight.
The cast for the upcoming twenty-sixth season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) has been announced. The full list of female fighters who will compete to become the first-ever UFC women’s flyweight champion for coaches Justin Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez was revealed during tonight’s (Sat., August 5, 2017) UFC Fight Night 114 from Arena Ciudad de México […]
The cast for the upcoming twenty-sixth season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) has been announced.
The full list of female fighters who will compete to become the first-ever UFC women’s flyweight champion for coaches Justin Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez was revealed during tonight’s (Sat., August 5, 2017) UFC Fight Night 114 from Arena Ciudad de México in Mexico City, Mexico.
Most notable among the names listed is former Invicta FC flyweight champion Barb Honchak, who defended her belt twice and never lost it, but has been out of the sport for over two-and-half-years. It would have to be assumed that Honchak would be the overwhelming favorite to win the show, as Invicta is widely considered to be the clear number one source in terms of female MMA translating to the UFC.
Fan favorite Invicta veteran Roxanne Modafferi, who competed as a women’s bantamweight on The Ultimate Fighter 18 featuring Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate, will also cut down to 125 in an effort to become a UFC champion.
Rising lightweight star Gaethje will look to skyrocket into the top of the UFC 155-pound division when he meets former champion Eddie Alvarez at the conclusion of the show.
Roxanne Modafferi believes she has an edge over other competitors on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season 26. Modafferi is coming off a third-round TKO victory over Sarah D’Alelio at Invicta FC 23. She’s entering TUF 26 with some momentum. The winner of TUF 26 will become the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s flyweight title holder. […]
Roxanne Modafferi believes she has an edge over other competitors on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season 26. Modafferi is coming off a third-round TKO victory over Sarah D’Alelio at Invicta FC 23. She’s entering TUF 26 with some momentum. The winner of TUF 26 will become the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s flyweight title holder. […]
A Fight Pass deal was a welcomed development. Invicta finally had a stable medium to broadcast their shows on…or so we thought.
After a pretty entertaining card, the stream froze shortly into the main event, which pitted Michelle Waterson against Yasuko Tamada.
People were understandably upset, though some tried to justify the stream going down by saying the phone stream was intact. The stream bounced back for about 10 seconds in the third round and then froze again. It didn’t come back (at least not for us) until Mike Schiavello was saying goodbye to everyone. From what we did see of the main event, Waterson looked incredible. She was agile, her strikes were lightning quick and she was unloading fierce combinations on Tamada. Tamada, on the other hand, looked like she was about 60 years old. We’re not kidding either. Her age is unknown. She had to be close to 40 at least. Outside of the fact that she was slow, her skill set was anemic. Waterson destroyed her.
Overall, the event was pretty good if you ignore the stream collapsing at the end (bad streams must be some kind of Invicta curse).
(If GIFs had sound you’d be hearing “THISFIGHTTHISFIGHTTHISFIGHTTHISFIGHT.” / GIF via r/MMA)
A Fight Pass deal was a welcomed development. Invicta finally had a stable medium on which to broadcast their shows…or so we thought.
After a pretty entertaining card, the stream froze shortly into the main event, which pitted Michelle Waterson against Yasuko Tamada.
People were understandably upset, though some tried to justify the stream going down by saying the phone stream was intact. The stream bounced back for about 10 seconds in the third round and then froze again. It didn’t come back (at least not for us) until Mike Schiavello was saying goodbye to everyone. From what we did see of the main event, Waterson looked incredible. She was agile, her strikes were lightning quick and she was unloading fierce combinations on Tamada. Tamada, on the other hand, looked like she was about 60 years old. We’d love to know how old she actually is but her age is unknown. No joke. She had to be close to 40 at least. Outside of the fact that she was slow, her skill set was anemic. Waterson destroyed her.
Overall, the event was pretty good if you ignore the stream collapsing at the end (bad streams must be some kind of Invicta curse).
We got to see Katja Kankaanpaa capture the Invicta FC strawweight title with a plucky submission win over Stephanie Eggink. Eggink controlled the first four rounds of the fight and nearly finished Kankaanpaa on multiple occasions. In the fifth round, Kankaanpaa caught Eggink, who seemed to disregard Kankaanpaa’s chances so late in the fight, in a d’arce choke. For some reason, the announcer called it a “dragon sleeper choke.” Cool, sure.
Other fights:
Tonya Evinger absolutely wrecked Ediane Gomes, dominating her in the grappling department and ultimately submitting her with an armbar. In her post-fight interview, Evinger said her game plan was simply to “kick someone’s ass.”
Women’s MMA pioneers Roxanne Modafferi and Tara LaRosa met on this card. Modafferi looked like a different fighter. Her striking and footwork improved about a thousand times over since we saw her in the UFC. She picked LaRosa apart en route to a unanimous decision.
DeAnna Bennett scored an incredible liver kick KO over Michelle Ould. The kick was brutal enough to have Ould reeling for several minutes after the fight was over.
Veronica Rothenhausler couldn’t continue her streak of knocking out her opponents in the first round. She managed to clip Charmaine Tweet in the first few seconds of the fight, but Tweet recovered quickly and proved to be far too much for Rothenhausler to handle. Tweet took control of the fight, dragged Rothenhausler to the mat, and finished her with ground and pound.
There were two fights of note on the prelims:
Irene Aldana defeated UFC-vet Peggy Morgan in a totally one-sided match-up. Aldana submitted Morgan with a rear-naked choke after flooring her multiple times with powerful strikes.
Alexa Grasso became 5-0 after defeating Ashley Cummins via unanimous decision. Grasso could potentially be a big name in the future. She’s conventionally attractive, talented, and Mexican–which will likely cause the UFC to call her up as they seek to expand in Mexico and Latin America.
The complete results of Invicta FC 8 are below:
Main Card
Michelle Waterson def. Yasuko Tamada via TKO (knee and punches), 4:58 of round 3.
Katja Kankaanpaa def. Stephanie Eggink via submission (d’arce choke), 2:03 of round 5.
Tonya Evinger def. Ediane Gomes via submission (armbar), 3:31 of round 1.
Roxanne Modafferi def. Tara La Rosa via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
DeAnna Bennett def. Michelle Ould via TKO (liver kick), 1:34 of round 2.
Charmaine Tweet def. Veronica Rothenhausler via TKO (punches), 4:05 of round 1.
Preliminary Card
Irene Aldana def. Peggy Morgan via submission (rear naked choke), 2:51 of round 1.
Alexa Grasso def. Ashley Cummins via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).
Jodie Esquibel def. Jinh Yu Frey via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-27).
JJ Aldrich def. Delaney Owen via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26).
In women’s MMA, as in men’s MMA, there are great matches and there are not-so-great matches. Claiming a men’s fight is sub-optimal doesn’t carry a negative stigma. Sure, some “YOU’RE NOT A FIGHTER, BRO” types will get upset, but generally it’s OK to call out the poor aspects of a contest — whether it pertains to the booking or the in-cage action — when two males are fighting.
We don’t hate women’s MMA. CagePotato is a proud sponsor of Invicta strawweight Rose Namajunas, and we’ll be sponsoring Angela “Overkill” Hill for her XFC debut later this month. However, just because we love WMMA doesn’t mean we’re not going to criticize a fight just because it’s between two women.
(Roxanne Modafferi, cruising to another bantamweight title-defense in the Ultimate Friendship Championship. / Photo via Getty)
In women’s MMA, as in men’s MMA, there are great matches and there are not-so-great matches. Claiming a men’s fight is sub-optimal doesn’t carry a negative stigma. Sure, some “YOU’RE NOT A FIGHTER, BRO” types will get upset, but generally it’s OK to call out the poor aspects of a contest — whether it pertains to the booking or the in-cage action — when two males are fighting.
We don’t hate women’s MMA. CagePotato is a proud sponsor of Invicta strawweight Rose Namajunas, and we’ll be sponsoring Angela “Overkill” Hill for her XFC debut later this month. However, just because we love WMMA doesn’t mean we’re not going to criticize a fight just because it’s between two women.
WMMA became popular because of the determination, dauntlessness, aggression, and outright ferocity of the contests throughout its history. Women often out-shined their XY-chromosomed counterparts whenever they were showcased on the MMA world stage. This is in large part due to the fact that, when WMMA was given airtime, we were generally seeing the best-of-the-best women fighting. As such, their performances were better — the kind that showed us what WMMA was all about and what made MMA fans fall in love with it.
There are still many female MMA fights that showcase these same traits — but not all. Some of the fights on last night’s TUF 18 Finale were just average, and there were moments from those fights that were certainly worthy of a few snarky tweets. Roxanne Modafferi is not a good striker, plain and simple, and Jessica Rakoczy’s terrible pro record can be partially explained by the massive holes in her ground game. As WMMA grows, it will fall prey to the same problems that men’s MMA has faced recently. Some fighters won’t be of the highest quality yet will still have a job in the world’s greatest MMA organization, if only to fill space in a frantic event schedule. Some fights will simply be lackluster.
Pointing these things out, as well as the apparently-controversial fact that not every fight between two women demonstrates “what women’s MMA is all about,” doesn’t mean you don’t like WMMA, because if you didn’t like it you wouldn’t care enough to watch. Supporting gender equality in sports means you should be able to criticize female athletes for bad performances just as quickly as you would with men. And if you follow CagePotato on Twitter and get upset when we express a harsh (but honest) opinion…what the hell are you doing following us in the first place?
