Jennifer Maia Fends Off Roxanne Modafferi's Attacks at Invicta FC 19 | MMAWeekly.com

Invicta FC returned to the Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City on Friday night for Invicta FC 19, where flyweight champion Jennifer Maia narrowly kept the belt around her waist in a tough battle with women’s MMA pioneer Roxanne Modafferi.

The fight opened with an extremely close first round, but Modafferi showed some sharp striking, coupled with a lot of movement and angles that weren’t prevalent earlier in her career. Maia, by contrast, was more efficient and powerful with her strikes.

In the second frame, it was more trading on the feet until late in the round when Modafferi secured a takedown, controlling and attacking both from her back and after taking top position in a scramble.

Maia began to step ahead a bit with a more aggressive striking attack in round three, but Modafferi slipped a punch and scored a takedown with three minutes left in the frame and kept it on the floor for the remainder of the round. Although Maia was attacking for a small portion of that time with her back to the canvas, Modafferi appeared close to nailing an armbar and controlled much of those three minutes.

The fourth frame was Maia’s best to that point of the fight. Modafferi tried some spinning moves and more exotic movement, but Maia stayed centered, saw the attacks unfold and fought through them, using her jab to set up multi-punch combinations.

Maia caught a kick and dumped Modafferi, doing some heaving damage to her grounded foe in the final two minutes of round four. In the waning moments, Maia pinned Modafferi’s arms and landed several punches to the face.

Modafferi had a lot of damage tattooed across her face and slowed a bit as the final round began. Though she continued to move forward, her movements weren’t as quick, and she began to eat more punch combinations.

Maia’s power also waned in the final frame, but her punches were still much heavier and more accurate than Modafferi’s. Again, Modafferi tried her spinning attacks, but Maia plodded through them, landing two- and three-punch combinations.

The judges scorecards were read and Maia got the split-decision nod. With the victory, she also shed the interim designation that had been attached to her title, as Invicta stripped champion Barb Honchack due to inactivity, leaving the winner of this fight as the undisputed flyweight titleholder.

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Ayaka Hamasaki retained her Invicta FC atomweight championship in a tough fight with Jinh Yu Frey that felt like it was cut short.

Hamasaki employed her patented takedowns in the opening round, but Frey turned the tables in the latter half of the round, hitting the mat, but scrambling into top mount. She landed quite a few punches, forcing Hamasaki to turn and give up her back, but time ran out before Frey could truly capitalize.

In the second frame, there were some good early exchanges, but the fight really began to heat up late in the round. Hamasaki rocked Frey with a right hand that wobbled her, following it with another right hand that sent her into the fence. As Hamasaki began to open up, the referee stepped in and called the ringside doctor in to check a deep cut that had opened over Frey’s left eye.

After a few moments, on advice of the doctor, the fight was waived off at 4:38 of round two. Hamasaki and Frey were both disappointed with the way the fight ended.

“I wanted to fight to the moment where I beat her, not have the fight stopped by the referee,” said Hamasaki.

Irene Aldana overcame an aggressive Faith Van Duin late in the first round. She utilized her speed and power to drop Van Duin and finish her with strikes just before the horn in the first round of their feature fight. With back-to-back wins since losing to bantamweight champ Tonya Evinger midway through 2015, Aldana is hoping she gets another crack at the belt in her next fight.

Kaline Medeiros outlasted Manjit Kolekar, winning a unanimous decision and increasing her winning streak to five consecutive fights. Following her fight, Medeiros called for a title fight with Invicta FC strawweight champion Angela Hill.

In earlier action, Kal Holliday spoiled the mixed martial arts debut of Muay Thai champion Tiffany Van Soest, submitting her little more than two minutes into the second round with a rear-naked choke.

Invicta FC 19: Maia vs. Modafferi Results

• Jennifer Maia def. Roxanne Modafferi by split decision (47-48, 48-47, 49-46)
• Ayaka Hamasaki def. Jinh Yu Frey by TKO (doctor’s stoppage) at 4:38, R2
• Irene Aldana def. Faith Van Duin by TKO (strikes) at 4:57, R1
• Kaline Medeiros def. Manjit Kolekar by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Kal Holliday def. Tiffany Van Soest by submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:08, R2
• Julia Jones def. Stephanie Skinner by submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:38, R1
• Amber Leibrock def. Amy Coleman by TKO (strikes) at 3:15, R1
• Sunna Rannveig Davidsdottir def. Ashley Greenway by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

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