Yana Kunitskaya Submits Tonya Evinger, Angela Hill Retains Title at Invicta FC 20 | MMAWeekly.com

Invicta FC 20: Evinger vs. Kunitskaya took place at the Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City, Missouri on Friday and featured two title fights. At the end of the eight-fight card, the all women’s fight promotion crowned a new champion.

In the main event, promotional newcomer Yana “Foxy” Kunitskaya pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year, submitting Tonya Evinger to capture the Invicta FC bantamweight title.

Evinger wasted no time getting the fight to the ground in the opening seconds of the fight. She quickly moved to side control, but the Russian applied an armbar. Evinger fought to get out of the submission. She was warned by the referee for placing her foot on Kunitskaya’s face and smashing it into the canvas seconds before tapping out.

“It feels so great,” said Kunitskaya following the win. “I’m so surprised that I finished the fight this fast. I was ready for five rounds, and it’s a very big surprise that I won this fight by submission.”

Evinger was riding a nine-fight winning streak heading into the bout.

In the co-main event, strawweight champion Angela Hill retained her title by defeating Kaline Medeiros via unanimous decision.

Hill employed a strategy of being constantly on the move. She shuffled laterally and moved in and out of the pocket, staying just out of range of Medeiros’ heavy right hand. Medeiros secured a takedown in the opening round, but Hill applied a triangle choke that kept the challenger from inflicting any damage.

Throughout the remaining four rounds, Hill landed her jab and attacked the lead leg of the Brazilian. Each time Medeiros would get the fight to the ground, Hill would gain top position. Hill showed improved takedown defense and a better ground game over the course of the bout. She looked composed and put in arguably her best career performance. All three judges scored the fight for Hill.

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Hill attributed her four-fight winning streak, title run, and first title defense to “a lot of things.”

“I had a rough start. I switched gyms. I started training with some really good training partners, really good coaches at Alliance MMA. I was just determined to turn a couple of loses into a bunch of wins,” she said following the fight.

“Kaline, she’s super-strong. There were a couple of moments when I thought I was down, but I was able to turn it around,” said Hill. “You get a tough opponent like that with hard hits and strong takedowns, you have to go into the gym everyday and work on that.”

In other main card action, former atomweight champion Herica Tiburcio rebounded from back-to-back losses by defeating Simona Soukupova by unanimous decision.

Tiburcio put Soukupova on her back in the opening frame and delivered a steady dose of ground and pound. In the second round, the former champion put out a high volume of strikes, keeping Soukupova guessing. Soukupova came out in the final round with a sense of urgency. She picked up the pace and put together combinations, but it was too little too late. Tiburcio won the first two rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.

Invicta FC 20 Full Results:

– Yana Kunitskaya def. Tonya Evinger by submission (armbar) at 1:59, R1
– Angela Hill def. Kaline Medeiros by unanimous decision (50-45, 49-46, 48-47)
– Herica Tiburcio def. Simona Soukupova by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-29)
– Ashley Yoder def. Amber Brown by submission (armbar) at 2:31, R2
– Pam Sorenson def. Jessica-Rose Clark by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
– JJ Aldrich def. Lynn Alvarez by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
– Alexa Conners def. Stephanie Egger by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
– Miranda Maverick def. Samantha Diaz by submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:26, R1

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