Saturday’s Invicta FC 21 card was an exciting and fast-paced affair capped off with Megan Anderson winning convincingly over Charmaine Tweet to become Invicta’s Interim Featherweight Champion, but a questionable referee’s decision early in the show may have overshadowed Anderson’s achievement.
The second fight on the card saw Amy Montenegro take on Celine Haga in a strawweight contest. The fight was an exciting back and forth brawl that saw both women come very close to finishing the fight. In fact, Haga, had Montenegro deep in a rear naked choke in the final moments of the third round. Montenegro appeared to be unconscious by all accounts, but referee Greg Franklin did not stop the fight and time ran out, putting the fight in the hands of the judges. Once Montenegro came to, she was awarded with a unanimous decision victory.
Many viewers and media covering the event were quick to point out that Montenegro was clearly out and that Haga should have been declared the victor. Veteran MMA official John McCarthy answered a fan question on Twitter regarding the fight and McCarthy replied: “Fights over! Fighter loses by sub to a RNC.”
Haga may have a case to appeal the decision as the consensus seems to be that she is the rightful winner but she has yet to make an announcement is she will look to have the result overturned.
Hiscoe’s Analysis: Last night’s Invicta show was really good and worth a look if you have Fight Pass. It was well paced, with lots of finishes, and was done in less than three hours and before 11 p.m. on the East Coast, something unheard in UFC.
Haga definitely deserves the win for that fight. With Montenegro unable to get to her feet on her own after the bell, that should signal the end of the fight and a win for Haga. This is one of those things that’s going to happen in one-in-a-million fights; it’s just too bad the ref didn’t see that she was out in time.
Megan Anderson looked great against Charmaine Tweet in the main event. She called out the Holly Holm-Germaine de Randamie winner, which was a smart move. I wouldn’t mind seeing more movement between Invicta and UFC with fighters going over to UFC for big fights, but still going back to Invicta the rest of the time, without exclusivity on either side. That way, we won’t see Invicta get raided anytime someone starts to get some momentum and fighters can be in featured positions on Invicta shows instead of buried on prelims of rank and file UFC shows, or worse not fighting at all.
SUNDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…
-UFC Fight Night Phoenix is going down as we speak, so be sure to check out our live coverage courtesy of Adam Tindal.
-Floyd Mayweather did an interview on last night’s Showtime Boxing event and said regarding coming out of retirement to box Conor McGregor: “If it’s Conor McGregor, [coming back] makes sense for me. But if it’s anyone else, it doesn’t make sense. Not for me.”
-Amanda Nunes has her sights set on the Women’s Featherweight Championship, challenging the Holly Holm-Germaine De Randamie winner in a tweet Saturday night.
-Tonya Evinger vs. Yana Kunitskaya is set for the next Invicta show on March 25. Kunitskaya beat Evinger by armbar back in November, but the result was overturned to a no contest because Evinger was asked to take her foot off of Kunitskaya’s face even though it was a legal move.
-Bethe Correia is set to fight Marion Reneau on the March 11 UFC show from Fortaleza, Brazil.
NOW CHECK OUT YESTERDAY’S UDPATE: SATURDAY NEWS DIGEST 1/14: Joe Rogan says whether he expects Rousey to fight again, suggests gameplan (w/Cervantes Analysis)
(MMATorch’s Daily News Digest features the top story of the day with added analysis, plus smaller tidbits in the News Notes section. Mike Hiscoe, who writes the News Digest Sundays through Thursdays, has a background in film criticism and previously wrote for the DVD Town and Movie Metropolis websites. His passion for Mixed Martial Arts goes back to 2005, but it was in the promotion for UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie that he really got hooked.”This is my house, I build it,” is still among the all-time great UFC promos. You can follow Mike on social media under the tag @mikehiscoe. He now provides his experienced writing and perspective on live MMA events for MMATorch.)
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