Predictable main event mismatch mars good Invicta show

Last night's Invicta show was the first to be broadcast by UFC Fight Pass. The stream was fine until the end when someone at UFC Fight Pass forgot to change the DVR tape before the main event. So there were no capacity problems. It was simply inattentiveness by guys who are paid to be attentive. The new broadcast team was Michael Shiavello of AXS TV and Julie Kedzie with Urijah Faber joining for the last two fights. I would prefer Pat Militech to Julie as he is more honest. Julie is always holding back though Shiavello tried to push her a bit. I wasn't too perturbed by the loss of the stream because the main event was crap. When Michelle Waterson vs Yasuko Tamada for the Invicta Atomweight Championship was announced, I criticized it as a predictable mismatch. Though they tried to sell Tamada as the former Valkyrie champ, that was five years ago and she hasn't been very good lately. And she hadn't fought in a year. Invicta's problem was they lost Jessica Penne and Lisa Ellis to The Ultimate Fighter 20. They wanted Ham Seo Hee but Ham isn't forty years old looking for a last big payday. That's who Tamada is now, not who she used to be. The bottom line is Invicta management has been around long enough to know not to book a mismatch in a main event. Now they will say they didn't know how bad she was. But they would have known if they had done their homework. The co-main event made up for it somewhat. Stephanie Eggink faced Katja Kankaanpaa for the Invicta Strawweight Championship. Stephanie was the favourite because she was seen a lot on AXS TV when she was XFC champ. I thought it would be competitive. Stephanie won three of the first four rounds. So Katja needed a finish. She managed to pull a d'arce choke out of nowhere to get the win and the belt. And it was match of the night. Congrats to Katja as she really earned it. In other matches, though Tanya Evinger missed weight, she beat Ediane Gomes with a first round armbar. I have always thought Gomes is overrated so I wasn't surprised. In an old timers match, Roxanne Modafferi beat Tara La Rosa by unanimous decision. Coach John Wood finally convinced Roxanne that she needs to throw punches. Tara was very slow. She just can't move anymore. DeAnna Bennett beat Michelle Ould with a second round TKO. Michelle missed weight and looked off to me. She took a bad liver shot at the end of round one and I thought maybe she shouldn't have come out for round two. She got nailed again and it was over. Charmaine Tweet beat the overhyped Veronica Rothenhausler by first round TKO. I think trying to do a 155lb division is a waste of time. There isn't enough talent out there. Mexican Irene Aldana beat Peggy Morgan by a first round rear naked choke. I didn't like Peggy in TUF18. She lacks quickness. So I won't be able to tell if Irene is any good until she fights better competition. She looked good in this fight. Tanya Evinger, maybe. Irene's teammate Alexa Grasso won by unanimous decision over Ashley Cummins. I thought Ashley got jobbed a bit. I think the judges gave Alexa way too much credit for very poor first round submission attempts. I don't think she knew what she was doing. It's the sort of thing where judging criteria means nothing because judging is subjective. If a sub attempt lacks technique, it's not a real sub attempt. Jodie Esquibel won by split decision over Jinh Yu Frey by split decision. I think Frey did enough in the first two rounds to win. But she made a huge error when she went for a sub after a round one takedown instead of going for ground and pound. That cost her the fight because she ran out of gas in round three. And JJ Aldrich won by unanimous decision over Delaney Owen in the opener. Invicta did not announce any future shows or fights in the post match press conference. And the damn thing was so poorly miked, no one could hear what anyone was saying. Ugh! What a bunch of idiots.