Talita
Bernardo forced Taneisha
Tennant out of her comfort zone.
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The former UFC competitor landed multiple takedowns, transitioned
to dominant positions and threatened with submissions en route to a
unanimous decision triumph in the
Invicta FC 51 headliner at Reelworks Denver in Denver, Colo.,
on Wednesday night. All three cageside judges submitted 48-46
tallies in favor of Bernardo (10-4, 3-0 Invicta), who claims the
promotion’s bantamweight crown. The final scorecards included a
Round 5 point deduction issued to Tennant for a fence grab with her
toes early in the period. The fight was tied heading into the final
stanza according to open scoring, but Bernardo quickly turned the
tide in her favor with an early takedown, and she spent much of the
frame on top in north-south position.
Bernardo set the tone early when she caught a Tennant (5-2, 4-1
Invicta) kick, dumped her to the canvas and spent the majority of
the opening stanza attached to her adversary’s back. While Tennant
enjoyed occasional success landing right hands on the feet and
ground-and-pound on the canvas, she was unable to combat the
grappling of the Brazilian long enough to sway the scorecards in
her favor.
After a 1-3 stint in the UFC, Bernardo has won her last four
professional outings.
Ketlen Souza busts open @WarhorseMMA
🩸#InvictaFC51
is LIVE on @AXSTV,
@fightnet,
YouTube and Facebook!WATCH: https://t.co/kN0Ht2eetC pic.twitter.com/7HoMJV2h4n
— Invicta FC (@InvictaFights)
January 19, 2023
In the co-main event, Ketlen
Souza claimed the vacant flyweight strap with a unanimous
decision triumph over Bellator MMA veteran Kristina
Williams. Cageside judges submitted scorecards of 50-45, 49-46
and 48-47 for the Brazilian, who has won her last five professional
outings. Williams sees a three-bout winning streak snapped in
defeat.
Souza (13-3, 2-0 Invicta) landed nearly all the offense of
consequence in the fight, as she connected with several heavy
overhand rights, a spinning hook kick to the head and an elbow from
top position that opened a gash above Williams’ right eye in the
third round. Williams (6-4, 2-1 Invicta) landed takedowns on a
couple occasions and did her best to force Souza into the clinch,
but she was unable to threaten her opponent from those positions.
At range, Souza often confounded Williams with her footwork and
head movement.
In earlier action: Olga Rubin
(8-3, 1-1 Invicta) scored a unanimous decision triumph (30-27,
30-27, 30-27) against Serena
DeJesus at bantamweight; Claire
Guthrie (5-1, 4-1 Invicta) captured a decision triumph (30-27,
30-27, 30-27) over Auttumn
Norton (2-2, 2-2 Invicta) at bantamweight;
Elisandra Ferreira de Oliveira (5-2, 1-0 Invicta) edged
Marisa Messer-Belenchia (5-2, 1-2 Invicta) via split decision
(29-28, 28-29, 30-27) in an atomweight bout; Rayanne
Amanda dos Santos (13-6, 1-0 Invicta) garnered a unanimous
verdict (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) over Katie Saull
(5-6, 1-3 Invicta) at atomweight and Fatima
Kline (3-0, 3-0 Invicta) defeated Laura
Gallardo (4-2, 0-2 Invicta) via unanimous decision (30-27,
30-27, 30-27) at strawweight