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| Bec Hyatt |
The Brazilian magazine Tatame reported this morning that Claudia Gadelha suffered a broken nose in training and has dropped out of her match with Carla Esparza on next Saturday's Invicta show. It was supposed to be for the Invicta 115lb championship. She underwent reconstructive surgery today so it reminds me of when Japanese female wrestler Meiko Satomura broke her face a few years ago and she was out for a year. So when your main event falls apart a week before the show, what should the promoter do? The chances that Invicta could find a main event worthy opponent at short notice is very slim. So the smart move and probably the best move for match quality is to cancel the match and schedule Carla Esparza vs Ayaka Hamasaki for the April show and make Shayna Baszler vs Alexis Davis the main event. Instead Invicta decided to try and find someone to accept the fight. Look, you're always going to find a fighter to accept something like this even if it's a bad idea. That's why cancelling the match is a better move though I understand that's not the popular thing to do. So Aussie fighter Bec Hyatt has accepted this match though she clearly doesn't belong in any kind of main event. She was supposed to fight undefeated Scottish fighter Joanne Calderwood on the undercard of the show. I wonder if the match was offered to Joanne. I bet it was. Sometimes knowing when not to do something is more important than knowing when to do something. Bec Hyatt may know how to get publicity for herself. She has done a lot of interviews lately. But she's unproven as a fighter. All four of her wins have been over winless fighters in Australia. So Joanne was already a big leap in competition level for her. Carla Esparza is an even bigger jump. Newcomer Livia Von Plettenber will face Joanne. I give Bec a lot of credit for accepting a match that seems above her head. But a big fat raspberry to Invicta management for not biting the bullet and cancelling the main event. I guess it's hard to do the right thing.
It was kind of a silly main event in the first place as they'd unfairly buried Esparza on the lower part of their other cards and brought in Gadhelia who fought at 125lbs and had no drawing power with American fans.
ReplyDeleteI hope Bec gets another chance as she's probably going to get mauled.
It was questionable matchmaking done because Ayaka Hamasaki wasn't available. Obviously they should have waited for Ayaka instead of overrating Claudia. With one week left, they should have cancelled the fight. Instead, they offered it to any 115lb fighter they could find. Six including Joanne Calderwood said no until Bec said yes. Joanne posted that on Facebook. Only a publicity hound would say yes with one week's notice. Invicta's decision was unfair to fighters who rightfully turned it down. And it's not like cancelling it would affect the show much. I dunno. They seem to make a lot of bad decisions.
ReplyDeleteYes, cancelling the title fight would probably be for the best. They could also have lined up more contender fights for 115lbs (before this event). Leaving yourself with only two worthy title challengers, Esparza and Hamazaki is bad booking, not something new to any level of this sport.
DeleteYou mentioned Meiko Satomura in your blog, I was a big fan of hers years ago, how she's doing?
Meiko is still around. But after three back surgeries, she can't do a lot of the things she used to do.
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