BREAKING: @InvictaFights
Heads to Denver on July 20 with Bantamweight Title Clash
#InvictaFC48 https://t.co/Q5DlKYTdSQ— Invicta FC (@InvictaFights)
June 9, 2022
Sign up for ESPN+ and order UFC 275: Teixeira vs.
Prochazka
Advertisement
Invicta Fighting Championships will be leaving
the Kansas City region for the first time since 2018 this July.
The organization sent out a press release on Thursday announcing
its next event, titled
Invicta FC 48, which will take place on July 20. Rather than
the Memorial Hall or Police Athletic League in Kansas City, Kansas,
Invicta will be posting up in Denver at Reelworks Denver. As it
will be held in Colorado, open scoring will be in effect. Capping
off the fight card will be a bantamweight championship affair
between defending champ Taneisha
Tennant (4-1) and ex-Bellator MMA fighter Olga Rubin
(7-2). The promotion will also be returning to the AXS TV airwaves,
rather than airing on YouTube.
Tennant claimed the bantamweight throne in an unorthodox manner.
Winning out Phoenix Series 3 at 135 pounds, Tennant claimed
decisions over
Brittney Victoria Grizzelle, Hope Chase
and Taylor
Guardado in March 2020 to earn the top contender spot. Instead
of fighting for the belt next, she shifted to 145 pounds and faced
ex-boxer Danyelle
Wolf inside of Dana White’s Contender Series. Coming up short,
she returned to Invicta and battled Lisa
Verzosa for five hard rounds in August 2021 to snag the vacant
title. “Triple Threat” will hope to become the first woman to
successfully defend her bantamweight strap since Tonya
Evinger did so in 2017.
With much of her career coming in the 145-pound range, Rubin worked
her way up to a Bellator title shot against Julia Budd in
2019. Succumbing to a first-round knockout, she then attempted to
bounce back against Sinead
Kavanagh a few months later, only to get knocked out again.
Nearly two years passed before she competed again, when she left
the Bellator ranks for European pastures to the Oktagon MMA ranks.
In November 2021, the woman known as “Big Bad” snagged a split
decision over Priscila
de Souza to get back on track.
The co-headliner spot also comes in the bantamweight division, when
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 28 and longtime Invicta vet Katharina
Lehner (7-3) makes her return to the cage for the first time in
over 21 months when she faces four-time Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor
Talita
Bernardo (7-4). The featured fight comes at 115 pounds when
ex-UFC talent Mallory
Martin (7-5) comes to blows with well-traveled “Mogwai”
Kyra
Batara (8-5).
Invicta FC 48 Lineup:
Taneisha
Tennant vs. Olga Rubin –
bantamweight championship
Katharina
Lehner vs. Talita
Bernardo – bantamweight
Mallory
Martin vs. Kyra Batara
– strawweight
Liana
Ferreira Pirosin vs. Kristina
Williams – flyweight
Amber
Leibrock vs. Morgan
Frier – featherweight
Auttumn
Norton vs. Maria
Djukic – bantamweight