Eye poke kills Invicta FC 34 main event

Not the most exciting end to the night, but it was a great card from top to bottom! And congrats to the new champ @vanessaportomma! #InvictaFC34 pic.twitter.com/nkyIUaQDOQ

— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) February 16, 2019

Invicta FC 34 aired last night on UFC Fight Pass. Unfortunately the main event ended prematurely due to an eye poke. The fight was for the vacant Invicta Flyeweight Championship. Vanessa Porto won the first three rounds over Pearl Gonzalez. Pearl was going to need a finish to win the fight. The eye poke happened halfway through round four. Vanessa was not going to be able to continue. The usual procedure is if the fight went long enough, a decision is based on the first three rounds. So Vanessa Porto is the new Invicta Flyweight Champion. The fight was OK. I thought Vanessa performed much better than she has in the past. It was one sided. Pearl had nothing for her. They also ran a Flyweight mini tournament to determine the number one contender. The first fight had Marina Rodriguez beat Milana Dudieva by split decision. I thought it was a close fight that could have gone either way. The main problem is Marina, like her teammate Alexa Grasso, isn't aggressive enough and it puts her in tough situations. I'm not sure she won this fight. The other fight had DeAnna Bennett over Miranda Maverick by unanimous decision. I didn't think either fighter performed very well. So now the winner of Marina vs DeAnna will face Vanessa for the Invicta Flyweight Championship. The Featherweight fight between Faith McMah and Helena Kolesnyk was cancelled when Helena missed weight by ten. I hope we don't see her again. In a tournament alternate bout, Tracy Cortez beat Erin Blanchfield by split decision. At least they got the right winner. In a Flyweight bout, Victoria Leonardo beat Jamie Malinowski by first round rear naked choke. In a 150 lb catchweight bout, Courtney King beat Holli Logan by second round rear naked choke. Holli missed weight and she looked awful. And in the Flyweight opener, Caitlin Sammons beat Chtistina Ricker by second round TKO. The show was OK. But the end of the main event really killed it. And I was fine with Vanessa not continuing and still winning the fight. It wasn't her fault. She was winning the fight anyway and I don't think Pearl deserves a rematch.