Invicta FC 7 does not need drama

When it comes to WMMA and Eric Holden you cannot stop him, you can only hope to contain him. Let’s be honest there is no containing that man. Eric reminds me of an excited Golden Retriever and a teenage boy. He loves the sport but in his excitement he usually manages to say the wrong thing even with the best of intentions. One of his latest pieces ponders whether or not the lack of recent hype over Invicta FC and their upcoming event is due to a feminist mafia group influencing fighters behind the scenes. He posits that there is pressure being placed on the fighters to act a certain way. He is of the belief that this pressure is coming from a group, FMMA on Facebook. The fighters are not to create any controversy and essentially act like good little girls. I do not know whether that is the case. I am not dialed into the behind the scenes machinations but I do have two eyes and a little common sense. There are several reasons there has not been as much hype around this card that have nothing to do with any conspiracy theories.

1. Time

One of the big reasons is the mount of time between their last event and the upcoming one on December 7th. Their last event was on July 13th and it was their third event of the year, with basically three months in between each event. It will be almost five months between these two events and a lot has happened in that time period. in the MMA world.

Lately it seems like every weekend there is a new fight of the year candidate going down. The UFC alone is on one their best stretches of events. Yesterday began a three events in ten-day stint that will culminate with UFC 167. They will also have two episodes of TUF air in those ten days. There will be TUF finale on November 30 and another UFC on December 6th. Mix in a little Bellator MMA, all the action on AXS TV and it is hard to get attention in this environment and it will build as it gets closer to the event.

2. TUF and other promotions

During the early part of the year all of the talk in the WMMA world seemed to focus on Ronda Rousey and Invicta FC. Now there are women regularly fighting in the UFC, including two fights on Wednesday night’s card. Go ahead and factor in Stephanie Eggink winning the XFC title, Holly Holm’s scoring two highlight reel KO’s, and Tiffany Van Soest dominating two opponents; all since the last Invicta FC event. Both Cyborg and Miriam Nakamoto have fought in Muay Thai fights since they last fought for Invicta FC.  Part of that helps keep the Invicta FC name out there but it gets lost with so much time between events.

TUF has also taken a lot of the attention away from them as the women have dominated this season. Their fights are the highest rated for the season and have garnered a lot of the MMA world’s attention right now. After their finale at the end of November, it will roll perfectly right into fight week for Invicta FC7.

3. The Fights and Fighters

When you look at the match ups on this card there is no reason for drama. Once the MMA community starts to turn its attention to this event there are some great fights on this card to sell it. There are three different titles on the line and all of them are intriguing fights. Any one of them could be a main event. You also have Joanne Calderwood and Katja Kankaanpaa which is a sick fight and Felice Herrig’s debut against the exciting Tecia Torres. Any one of those five fights could end up being fight of the night. You mix in an old school matchup between Tonya Evinger and Kelly Kobold, welcome Munah Holland to Invicta with a fight against Nina Ansaroff the card will start off nicely. Then you get Vanessa Porto and Zoila Frausto Gurgel squaring off, followed by Julia Budd and Charmaine Tweet. Another nicely stacked card from Invicta.

Now some people might be surprised to see Herrig’s name on card and no controversy. Those would be the ones who do not pay much attention. She has not started any of the pre-fight controversy in her last few fights. She has responded but she has not started it. She did not have problems with Carla Esparza before their fight and they are now the best of friends. Torres is not the type to trash talk her opponents either so they have been quiet on that front and their fight does not need it. Herrig and Torres are two of the best strikers in MMA who both look to use their ground game to keep the fight standing, This will be a hard-fought highly skilled standup battle between two warriors.

4. Invicta FC

They have had some internal issues that they have been sorting out. This takes away from the time they have to promote themselves and a lot of it comes from the promotions themselves. One of the reasons for the UFC’s success is how well they promote the UFC and their fighters. In the past they have run video and Twitter contest for their fighters. As they get sorted out behind the scenes they will have more time for the promotional side of things. You see signs of this with their new website that launched this week. It is an upgrade from the previous one and you should definitely check it out.

Also, if they had not been dealing with the internal issues they probably would have already put on an event. They are still a growing promotion doing what no one else is doing in the world right now and they are suffering some growing pains. They have exactly what an organization needs to deal with the difficult times and that is a strong leader. Shannon Knapp has shown that she will deal with whatever adversity is placed in front of her. She also has a passion for the sport and her fighters and that is one of the necessary keys for success.

I get it. Sometimes a little drama is fun but it will not sustain a promotion and they know that over at Invicta FC, and that is why they emphasize the fighters and their skills. That is also how it should be, because at the end of the day what everybody wants is a successful event. They already have it setup with another stacked card. Any organization will have some troubles and trials as they are growing and Invicta FC has experienced some of those recently. The best thing for them will be the event itself. As we get closer to it, the buzz will grow even without the controversy. There is always the possibility that Envinger’s opponent Kobold, gets jealous of all the attention that Evinger pays to Herrig on Twitter I suppose. Otherwise, expect a lot of respectful talk about each other’s skill sets from the fighters. Though it this day and age of social media one Tweet is all it takes to start some drama.

As far as feminism goes I think we can all agree with the basic tenet, that women should be treated as equal to the men. They should be given the same opportunities as men. This does not mean that you have the right to stop a fighter from marketing their sexuality if that is how they want to be marketed. That is just a different form of oppression. It gets tricky though because often times a woman will feel pressured to do it because it is the only option. This ultimately is not a true choice. Not when their choice is the sexual side or nothing. For others they are completely comfortable with that side of themselves and sharing it with the world. It is about it being their choice and not someone pressuring them either way is wrong. That I think we can agree on.

Over the next few weeks they hype for this event will really start to kick in. I will be doing a detailed pre-fight preview, breakdown and picks for all of the fights in one big article. There may even be a piece or two on some of the new faces for Invicta FC on this card. So do not worry Eric, the hype is coming it will just be a little different this time, and it will focus on the awesome match ups and the fighters.

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