Invicta had their latest show last night in Kansas City. Typically, the main card was weak. The big news coming out of this show wasn't even in the cage. They announced that UFC Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes will take a role in matchmaking and talent development. My initial reaction to this is it is window dressing designed to deflect criticism of Invicta's matchmaking. The main problem with Invicta's matchmaking is they can't seem to put together strong main cards. Overrating fighters and putting unproven fighters on the main card are the big problems. I don't know if Amanda can force Invicta to be honest with themselves. I suppose time will tell. Last night's show was an example of Invicta's drawbacks. All of their titles are currently vacant. But they couldn't put together a title match for last night's show. So instead the main event had former Strikeforce champ Sarah Kaufman vs former Cage Warriors champ Pannie Kianzad. Sarah is coming off a dreadful UFC stint. We hadn't seen Pannie for a while. She hasn't done well in Invicta. During fight week, Sarah said this was her first step to a UFC return. I don't see it. There was a time that Sarah was a dominant fighter who finished fights. She hasn't done that for a few years and she didn't do it last night. Oh, she won the fight. But it's not the kind of win she needs to get back to the UFC. Until she shows me otherwise, I don't believe she can be a dominant fighter anymore. The co-main was an example of Invicta's bad habit of booking predictable and needless mismatches in the main card. Veteran Flyweight Vanessa Porto won over Mariana Morais by first round rear naked choke. Mariana never should have been on the main card or in Invicta. It's flawed thinking. Mismatches don't do Vanessa any favors. And I should point out that every time Vanessa has got a title shot, she has come up short. So this mismatch was booked to pump up an overrated fighter. That is poor matchmaking. In a Strawweight bout, Sharon Jacobson won by unanimous decision over Ashley Nichols. It was an OK fight but it's a prelim fight. It didn't belong on the main card. In an Atomweight bout, Ashley Cummins won by unanimous decision over Stephanie Alba. This was on the main card because Ashley is from St. Louis. But Stephanie, who used to fight for Combate Americas, wasn't competitive. Did they book her just because she was on TV? So out of four main card matches, two were obvious and predictable mismatches. That's a problem. On the prelims, Brogan Sanchez beat Cheri Muraski by split decision. I thought Cheri won the fight but I wasn't impressed with either of them. In a Featherweight bout, Felicia Spencer beat Akeela Al-Hameed by unanimous decision. I like what I have seen from Felicia so far. It's time to move her up the card. Akeela was making her pro debut. She was outclassed. In a Strawweight bout, Mallory Martin beat Tiffany Masters by second round TKO. I don't like either fighter and I didn't see anything to change my tune. In an Atomweight bout, Thai kickboxing whiz Loma Lookboonmee won by unanimous decision over Melissa Wang. Loma was making her MMA debut and she's getting a lot of praise for her performance. Obviously her standup skills are great. But against a fighter like this, she needed to finish. And her inability to finish especially with a first round rear naked choke indicates that she needs work on the fine points of MMA. She also was docked a point for a knee to the head of a downed opponent. That lack of discipline could cause her problems with better fighters. So I like her but she's not a finished product. She's only 21 so there is plenty of time for development. It shows why many Thai fighters won't do MMA. The nuances of MMA can be difficult to learn and it may not be worth the effort. And in the opening Strawweight bout, Helen Peralta beat Jade Ripley by first round TKO. It's hard to tell if Helen is any good because Jade was terrible. She was bouncing around and constantly changing her stance. She didn't know what she was doing. What did they see in her? Here's hoping for better matchmaking next time.
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