Invicta announced the main card for Dec. 7 at the Ameristar Casino in Kansas City. This will be available on PPV. The interesting thing is there are three title matches on this show and they haven't announced prelims yet. So the likelihood that this show will run longer than previous shows is pretty good. The problem with that is when a show runs too long, you run the risk of tiring out the live crowd and they have nothing left for the end of the show. Supposedly they are going to run 8-10 shows in 2014. Whether they can afford to do that without a TV deal is another story. A broadcaster wouldn't let them run shows this long. They only want two hours of airtime. So with three matches possibly going five rounds each, that's an hour and a half. This show could run to 3AM. And there are a couple of announced matches that maybe should be prelims. I see a couple of attempts at women's MMA nostalgia that I could live without. The main event will have Barb Honchak defending her Invicta Flyweight Championship against Leslie Smith. Barb wasn't all that impressive in her first title defence and Leslie just dropped from 135 to 125. Leslie prefers standing but she can handle herself on the ground. Carla Esparza will defend her Invicta Strawweight Championship against Claudia Gadelha. Because Claudia is dropping from 125 to 115, she should have a strength advantage. The other title match will be in Bantamweight between Lauren Taylor and Miriam Nakamoto. Invicta keeps losing 135lb fighters to the UFC. In fact Miriam was offered a UFC contract but that would prevent her from continuing in kickboxing. I understand that she wants to do both but I think most would agree that is a poor career decision. I expect this fight to be a kickboxing match. Neither of these fighters has much of a ground game and Miriam is a really good kickboxer. Invicta's 135lb roster is always going to be thin. So then we have a couple of Strawweight fights, Felice Herrig vs Tecia Torres and Joanne Calderwood vs Katja Kankaanpaa. Last time out, Tecia got a big win over Rose Namajunas and I think she's a better fighter than Felice though Felice is better known because she's a really good self promoter. Joanne is primarily known as a striker. Katja is an interesting opponent because she has a pretty good jiu jitsu game. It could be interesting if she takes Joanne down. The first few matches on the main card aren't as interesting. Julia Budd will face Charmaine Tweet to determine Cris Cyborg's next victim. The 145lb weight class is very thin. Zoila Gurgel will face Vanessa Porto. The loser gets a one way trip to Palookaville. In a women's MMA nostalgia match, Kelly Kobold will face Tonya Evinger. I would have been interested in seeing this in 2007. But not today. Kelly hasn't fought since Apr. 2011 and her last significant fight was a loss to Gina Carano on a 2008 EliteXC show. I know she was doing lingerie football for a while. We saw Tonya recently in the TUF tryouts. At least she has been more active than Kelly. The other match has Munah Holland vs Nina Ansaroff. Munah is a championship boxer but is a work in progress in MMA because she has no ground game. Nina is 5-3 but has never fought on a national show. She won her last fight in Brazil in June. The one name not on this show is Cris Cyborg. Supposedly Invicta was trying to find her an opponent at 155lb. I guess they couldn't find an opponent but it was a dumb idea anyway. Remember they haven't announced any prelims yet so if you're going to the show, take a pillow so you can be comfortable for hours.
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