Invicta FC 8 Recap: Waterson Smashes Tamada In Missouri

Invicta Fighting Championship’s eighth event has just gone down (Saturday, September 6, 2014) and it turned out be a great card all around for the WMMA promotion.

Invicta FC 8: Waterson vs. Tamada took place at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The card marked the first event for the promotion to be available to watch on UFC Fight Pass following a deal between the UFC and Invicta.

Headlining the card was a pair of world title fights as atomweight champion Michelle Waterson took on Yasuko Tamada in the main event and Stephanie Eggink battled it out with Katja Kankaanpaa for the vacant strawweight title.

It didn’t take long for Waterson to get into the swing off things following her 17-month lay-off as she attacked her Japanese opponent right from the bell. Tamada ate the majority of the champions shots and kept moving forward but “The Karate Hottie” was more than happy to send more her way.

Waterson brutalised Tamada with knees and a varitey of kicks right up until the third round. The challenger showed incredible durability to keep coming forward but the damage done was already significant. A final knee and a couple of punches forced the stoppage just a couple of seconds from the end of the third round.

The co-main event turned out to be one of the big highlights of the night with Eggink and Kankaanpaa going back-and-fourth for nearly the full five rounds before Kankaanpaa pulled off a well-excuted D’arce choke with just under three minutes to go. Eggink held her own in the first few rounds which were pretty close, but she scored big damage to her opponent in the fourth with some nice ground-and-pound from full mount.

The 26-year old looked fresher coming out in the fifth but it was Kankaanpaa who scored first with a takedown. Once the fight hit the mat she quickly locked in the submission to force Eggink to tap and become the strawweight champ.

Tonya Evinger was able to stretch her current win streak to five with a slick first round submission over hard-hitting Brazilian Ediane Gomes. Many speculated how Evinger would perform following her failed weigh-in. However, the 33-year old was as sharp as usual and was able to armbar Gomes after taking her down early on.

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 18 alum Roxanne Modafferi took home her first professional win in nearly four years in her trilogy with Tara LaRosa. “The Happy Warrior” dropped back down to flyweight for the contest and it paid off as she handed LaRosa another loss; putting her to 2-1 against the 36-year old.

DeAnna Bennett managed to extend her perfect record to 5-0 in the flyweight division with a devastating knockout over Michelle Ould. The 29-year old, who owns a win over TUF 18 winner Julianna Pena, smashed a huge body kick to the liver of Ould in the second round of their bout to take the TKO win.

To open up the main card, Charmaine “Not So Sweet” Tweet handed rival opponent Veronica Rothenhausler the first professional loss of her MMA career in what was the first ever lightweight match for Invicta. Tweet avoided some big shots from Rothenhausler at the start and pushed the fight to the mat. From there it was all the Canadian, as she moved in to full mount before pounding her opponent out.

J.J. Aldrich, Jodie Esquibel and Alexa Grasso all picked up decisions wins in the preliminary match-ups over Delaney Owen, Jinh Yu Frey and Ashley Cummins respectively. Highly-regarded Mexican prospect Irene Aldana picked up the biggest win on the undercard with her domination over TUF 18 contestant Peggy Morgan.

Invicta FC 8: Waterson vs. Tamada Results:

Preliminary Bouts

J.J. Aldrich def. Delaney Owen via unanimous decision

Jodie Esquibel def. Jinh Yu Frey via split decision

Alexa Grasso def. Ashley Cummins via unanimous decision

Irene Aldana def. Peggy Morgan via submission (rear-naked choke) Round 1 – 2:50

Main Card

Charmaine Tweet def. Veronica Rothenhausler via TKO (punches) Round 1 – 4:05

DeAnna Bennett def. Michelle Ould via TKO (kick and punches) Round 2 – 1:34

Roxanne Modafferi def. Tara LaRosa via unanimous decision

Tonya Evinger def. Ediane Gomes via submission (armbar) Round 1 – 3:31

Katja Kankaanpaa def. Stephanie Eggink via submission (D’arce choke) Round 5 – 2:03

Michelle Waterson def. Yasuko Tamada via TKO (punches) Round 3 – 4:58