Yesterday Invicta announced that their next show will be Mar. 11 at the Trinidad Pavillion at Tropicana in Las Vegas. And they announced the full card. As usual, I will analyze the full card with a critical eye. My first thought was we have a great main event but the rest of the card is not up to par. The main event will have Ayaka Hamasaki defending her Invicta Atomweight Championship against Amber Brown. This has match of the year potential. Of course Ayaka is a Megumi Fujii trainee. So I expect Megumi will be in Vegas. Ayaka has also had success training RENA for her RIZIN fight and she will be training pro wrestler Syuri in MMA. Ayaka won the belt over Herica Tiburcio by unanimous decision. The kind of smothering attack she used in that fight won't work against someone as aggressive as Amber. Amber trains at Fit NHB in Albuquerque which is owned by UFC fighter Tim Means. Amber has won her last three Invicta fights. And she likes to finish. So I expect the first round to be crazy. But I don't know if it will get to round two. Of course a big plus for Ayaka is she will have the master strategist Mega Megu in her corner. I can't wait for this one. The co-main event will have Vanessa Porto vs Jennifer Maia for the Interim Flyweight Championship. A couple of months ago, Invicta said they would to a tournament. Maybe they didn't know if Barb Honchak will return. A change to the interim belt tells me that Barb will return. Vanessa and Jennifer are both veteran Brazilian fighters who tend to be inconsistent. I'm not a fan of either. Mexican Irene Aldana will face Jessamyn Duke. Both are overrated. Irene is a teammate of Alexa Grasso but she's not as good. In her last fight, she lost badly to Tonya Evinger. Jessamyn lost her last three UFC fights. I thought she was overrated before she went to the UFC. She's tall but awkward and she is mainly a striker with no ground game. So I don't like either of them. Alexa Grasso will face Stephanie Eggink. In her last fight, Alexa really schooled MIZUKI. I think she's ready for the UFC now. But she's returning from injury so we'll see how she looks now. I am told that Stephanie is returning from pregnancy. Her last fight was a loss to Katja Kankaanpaa in Sept. 2014. I just think Alexa is too slick for her. Roxanne Modafferi will face DeAnna Bennett in a Flyweight bout. Didn't DeAnna just lose a Strawweight Championship match? She did and now she's back up to Flyweight which is her natural fighting weight. She was not impressive at Strawweight. I don't know what Invicta management sees in her. Roxy is a fan favourite who has improved quite a bit since training with John Crouch at Syndicate in Vegas. He seems to have gotten rid of some of her bad habits. A win here might get her a title shot. Former Invicta Atomweight champ Herica Tiburcio will face Jinh Yu Frey. Instead of giving her an immediate title shot, this kind of prelim fight is where Herica should have been in the first place. It should be an even match. Andrea Lee will face Sarah D'Alelio at 125lb. Sarah usually fights at a heavier weight. I wonder why they didn't give Andrea a rematch with Roxy. Hmmm. Anyway, I have liked Andrea in the past and she has personality which can be tough to find sometimes. Bantamweights Kelly McGill and Amberlynn Orr will face off. Kelly won her Invicta debut in Nov. Amberlynn is making her pro MMA debut though she as an extensive amateur record. And in the opener, Strawweights Ashley Greenway and Sarah Click are both making pro MMA debuts. So there you have it. You can watch Invicta FC 16 on UFC Fight Pass. I will use Roku to watch it on my HDTV.
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