Invicta FC 7 another iPPV disaster

Barb Honchak punches Leslie Smith

It's interesting that some fans are so desperate for Invicta FC to be successful that they are willing to forgive anything. But there is no excuse for the ongoing problems they have with iPPVs. And the bottom line is if they don't find a solution to that problem, they will close because no one can survive repeatedly refunding money. When Invicta first offered iPPV last year, I predicted disaster because I knew none of the iPPV providers could handle any kind of volume. At the time, we discovered that even 5,000 buys would bog them down. That's a small figure. When Invicta FC 6 was on all major North American PPV providers, it was thought that maybe the problem was solved. But they weren't able to do that for this show. The big missing PPV providers were DIRECTV in the US and Viewer's Choice in Canada which is the PPV provider for Rogers Cable. BTW, I am with Rogers Cable. And they moved to a new iPPV provider Dacast because they accept Paypal. So a lot of fans who bought the last show on PPV through cable or satellite would be forced to buy it on iPPV. That put a lot of pressure on Dacast and they flunked the test. No one could get in. And the dope running the Invicta Twitter knew about this but didn't tell Invicta owner Shannon Knapp. She didn't know until Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting told her at around 8:30PM Eastern. That person should be fired. Shannon took the paywall down and is refunding everyone. And even after that, the stream seemed to buffer a lot and needed refreshing. It was an inexcusable disaster. Last year I said that iPPV isn't reliable enough to be used as a major source of revenue. After the UStream fiasco, Shannon should have known that. Those who don't learn from mistakes are doomed to repeat them. This was deja vu all over again. One thing she could do in the future is be sure that all PPV carriers are on board before announcing a date. That takes pressure off of iPPV. But she can't depend on any of the iPPV providers. All of them suck. So the other big problem was the Invicta Strawweight Championship match between Carla Esparza and Claudia Gadelha was cancelled because Claudia got sick on Friday night. Until she came to Invicta, Claudia fought at 125. So is cutting to 115 unsafe for her? After this, Shannon should be very reluctant to allow Claudia to fight at 115. This was a major blow to the show and I don't think it should be acceptable as just one of those things. Some fighters cut too much weight and it affects their health. That seems like the case here. And Carla Esparza had too much time on her hands and took too many stupid pills. But I'll get to that in a minute. The main event had Barb Honchak defending her Invicta Flyweight Championship against Leslie Smith. I think Barb is a better fighter but some were surprised when she won by unanimous decision. It didn't surprise me. I'm not sure why some favoured Leslie. I don't pay attention to other people's predictions and I never predict anything myself. Lauren Murphy won the Invicta Bantamweight Championship when Miriam Nakamoto was forced to retire at the start of round four due to a knee injury. Miriam won the first two rounds but Lauren won round three. If Miriam needs surgery, it could be over for her. She's 37 years old. I like her Muay Thai skills but time waits for no one. Tecia Torres won an easy decision over the overhyped Felice Herrig. I think Felice is an excellent self promoter. She improved as a fighter but I think her development has stalled. Afterwards, Carla Esparza came out and challenged Tecia because Felice is her best friend. I know some people liked this foolishness. I guess I'm old school. I don't like it when pro wrestlers or MMA fighters go into business for themselves and try to pre-empt matchmaking. To her credit, Tecia said she doesn't believe she is the next challenger. For one thing, some might say Joanne Calderwood should get a title shot but she didn't seem too upset about the supposed snub. She just came off her biggest win to date over Katja Kankaanpaa by unanimous decision. Joanne showed a little more diversity in this fight but I am still concerned she depends too much on her Muay Thai skills. Katja was the first fighter to win a round over Joanne. There are plenty of 115lb fighters in the mix so I wouldn't necessarily grant her a title shot yet. And some of those 115lb fighters could be UFC bound. Julia Budd beat Charmaine Tweet by unanimous decision. They are both kickboxers but Julia is much stronger than Charmaine and won easily. Julia could be the next victim...er...challenger for Cris Cyborg. Vanessa Porto won over Zoila Gurgel by unanimous decision. I didn't see this fight because of the streaming problems. Maybe Zoila is heading to Muay Thai full time. In the prelims, Tonya Evinger won by unanimous decision over late replacement Sarah D'Alelio and Nina Ansaroff won by second round TKO over Munah Holland. That was the only real finish of the night. The scuttlebutt is the next Invicta show will be in February. But I think Shannon Knapp needs to do something about their broadcasting situation before the next show. She can't keep shooting herself in the foot like this.