Invicta FC 14 Results: Tonya Evinger Dominates Pannie Kianzad

Invicta bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger handed Pannie Kianzad her first career loss in the Invicta FC 14  main event at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday.  The bout was supposed to be for the 135-pound title, but Kianzad failed to make weight at Friday’s weigh-in.  The all-women’s fight promotion was forced to downgrade the match to a five-round, non-title fight.

Evinger logged a dominating performance, extending her winning streak to eight consecutive fights.  She closed the distance and took Kianzad down and battered her with punches, hammer fists and elbows.  She dropped Kianzad with a right hand to start the second frame and followed her to the canvas.  She advanced to the mount position and pounded away until the referee had seen enough.

“Titles don’t matter to me.  It just matters about winning my fights,” said Evinger when asked about the belt not being on the line.

DeAnna Bennett remained undefeated by besting former strawweight champion Katja Kankaanpää in the co-main event.  Bennett failed to make weight and faded late in the bout.  The first two rounds were closely contested.  Kankaanpää moved forward throughout the bout.  She secured takedowns, and Bennett would look to lock on a guillotine choke.  The final round was all Kankaanpää,  She took Bennett down and controlled her while attempting submissions.  Many, including the commentators, thought Kankaanpää had done enough to get to the nod.

“I’ll be completely honest, I sucked pretty much that last round.  There’s no other way – Ya’ll saw it.  This has been probably the worst fight camp that I’ve ever had in my entire life, but I’m not going to go into that right now,” said Bennett after the fight. “I know some of you might have seen the fight going the other way, and I understand that.  All I can promise is I’m going to come back and be even stronger my next one.”

Women’s fighting veteran Roxanne Modafferi snapped 19-year-old Mariana Morais’ five-fight winning streak in flyweight action.  The Ultimate Fighter 18 participant secured an early takedown and quickly advanced to the mount position.  She controlled the Brazilian for the remainder of the round.  The second frame looked a lot like the first.  Morais’ biggest moment in the fight came in the final round.  She applied a guillotine choke and pulled guard to tighten it down.  Modafferi remained calm and escaped the submission attempt.  After mounting Morais, Modafferi hammered away with punches and elbows until referee “Big” John McCarthy called a stop to the fight.

“I trained really hard.  We all train hard.  I wanted to finish her,” she said after the fight.

“It wasn’t tight at that moment, but it could have gotten tight.  She’s a very game opponent.  I think my experience might have played a little part in that,” said Modafferi about the third-round submission attempt.  “She’s strong and talented and she’s going to do great in the future.

Modafferi took the opportunity to call for a title fight during her post-fight interview.

“I would very much like to fight for the belt in the very near future,” she said.  “I’ll fight anyone Invicta offers me, but I’d like Barb Honchak.”

Up and coming flyweight Andrea Lee put all of her skills on display against Rachael Ostovich.  She used her length to keep Ostovich guessing and at distance.  She hurt Ostovich with body shots and had a rear-naked choke in tight when the bell sounded, signaling the end of the opening round.  Lee knocked Ostovich down in the second frame with a stiff jab.  Mixing up her attack, Lee secured several takedowns.  Ostovich caught a kick and took Lee down in the early going on the final round, but Lee quickly got back to her feet.  She battered and bloodied Ostovich, and finished the fight with two seconds remaining via armbar.

“I’m really, really proud that I came out here and showed everybody that I deserve to be here,” she said following win.  “I wanted to proved to everybody that I wasn’t one-dimensional and that I could wrestler because in my last fight I didn’t show that.  Everything is a focus for me.  I want to train every aspect of MMA.”

Featherweights Cindy Dandois and Megan Anderson kicked off the Invicta 14 main card.  It was a classic grappler against striker stylistic match-up with the grappler emerging as the winner.  Anderson moved forward and landed a combination, but it was all Dandois from that moment on.  She nearly finished Anderson in the opening round with strikes on the ground, but Anderson survived the bad position.  Dandois secured an early takedown in the second frame and applied a triangle choke.  Anderson was unable to escaped and eventually tapped out to the submission.

Invicta FC 14: Evinger vs. Kianzad Results:

Tonya Evinger def. Pannie Kianzad by TKO (strikes) at 3:34, R2
DeAnna Bennett def. Katja Kankaanpää by decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Roxanne Modafferi def. Mariana Morais by TKO (strikes) at , R3
Andrea Lee def. Rachael Ostovich by verbal submission (armbar) at 4:58, R3
Cindy Dandois def. Megan Anderson by submission (triangle choke) at 2:41, R2
Sharon Jacobson def. Jamie Moyle by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Jinh Yu Frey def. Liz McCarthy by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
JJ Aldrich def. Rosa Acevedo by KO (knee and punches) at 2:24, R1
Aspen Ladd def. Amanda Bobby Cooper by submission (armbar) at 4:42, R2
Felicia Spencer def. Rachel Wiley by TKO (strikes) at 3:32, R1

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