Invicta FC11 damaged by too many late replacements

When the card for last night's Invicta show was announced last month, I thought it was a weak card. We knew that Cris Cyborg would wreck Charmaine Tweet in the main event so the rest of the card needed to have more competitive fights. I thought there were too many question marks on the show. But it got worse when four of the eight fights needed late replacements. Even if that was just bad luck, it hurt the show as none of those fights were competitive. In the main event, Cris Cyborg predictably won over Charmaine Tweet by first round TKO. After the show, Invicta announced that Cyborg will fight in July at 145lb. Lately there has been talk that the UFC wants to sign Cyborg. But last night Lorenzo Fertitta told Karyn Bryant they only want her to fight at 135. And they will want her to commit to multiple fights. They are not interested in Rousey vs Cyborg at 140lb catchweight because Cyborg needs them more than they need her. She has already wasted over two years on this and she will continue to waste her time. The ball is in her court. The real main event of this show had Alexa Grasso beat MIZUKI by unanimous decision. This was the fight of the night and I am posting the match video. In order to win this fight, MIZUKI needed to generate more offense. But just like in her last fight, she didn't so that. So by the time she started to control Alexa on the ground in round three, it was too late. She has already lost the first two rounds. I scored the fight 29-28 for Alexa and so did two of the judges. The third judge scored it 30-26. Huh? In this fight, we got to see more from Alexa and she did well. Don't be surprised if we see her on the upcoming UFC Mexico show. And I think they will sign MIZUKI too because they can use her on Japanese shows. In other matches, DeAnna Bennett dropped to 115 and beat Norma Center by unanimous decision. Norma was a late replacement. This was a terrible fight with way too much jockeying for position on the fence. This is the second straight fight where DeAnna won the fight but gave a terrible performance. In addition, Julie Kedzie refused to criticize the fight. Part of the problem was Mauro Ranallo wasn't available and they brought in Sherdog's TJ DiSantis. He wasn't able to control Julie's mannerisms the way Mauro can. She's not objective because she is the Invicta matchmaker so she shouldn't be a commentator. They have high hopes for DeAnna so Julie won't criticize her. And Julie used to train with Norma. They're buddies. Irene Aldana won over Colleen Schneider by rear naked choke. Colleen was a late replacement. Jamie Moyle put JJ Aldrich to sleep with a rear naked choke. Jamie looked good. Time to move her up the card. Amy Montenegro beat Brianna VanBuren by unanimous decision. This fight was at 115 and I think Brianna should drop to 105. Christine Stanley beat Laura Salazar by TKO. It might have been a quick stoppage. This fight was at 115 and Laura was a late replacement. I understand she normally fights at 105. And in the opener, 19 year old amateur phenom Aspen Ladd won by TKO over Ana Catolina Vidal. Ana was a late replacement. The stoppage was early. It was right at the end of the first round and most refs wouldn't have stopped it. And he stood them up before that unnecessarily. Invicta announced their next show will be Apr. 10 location TBA. They announced one match and as I normally do, I will analyze the entire card once it is announced. Enjoy the video!