Check out the official #InvictaFC36 fight gallery by photographer Dave Mandel here: https://t.co/7Z5vTchgVf pic.twitter.com/urYfXqXq5S
— Invicta FC (@InvictaFights) August 11, 2019
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TOTAL NUMBER OF INVICTA FIGHTS: 331
TOTAL NUMBER OF INVICTA EVENTS: 37
Invicta Fighting Championships on Friday put its featherweight gold up for grabs between two veterans of the promotion in Kansas City, Kansas. Invicta FC 36 featured the first 25-minute featherweight fight in company history, an unusual mistake by the commission and a pioneer of the sport setting a few unfortunate records.
HAVE GOLD WILL TRAVEL: This was the 10th straight Invicta event to feature a title fight in the headliner. Throughout promotional history, a belt has been on the line in 30 of the 37 main events.
ALL KNOTTED UP: Three of the eight bouts ended in split verdicts, tying Invicta 17, Invicta 23 and Invicta 25 for the second-most split decisions on a card in company history. Only Invicta Phoenix Rising 1 held more (four).
IT’S WHAT YOU GET: Two fighters on the card missed weight -- Janaisa Morandin and Chantel Coates. Both women lost and did so in the only two stoppages of the night.
25 IN THE BANK: Pam Sorenson and Kaitlin Young went five full rounds, as Sorenson picked up the win and the vacant featherweight belt. Their 145-pound battle was the first in Invicta history to go 25 minutes, with every previous five-round featherweight bout ending before it reached the scorecards.
AT LEAST IT WAS FOR THE TITLE: In dropping a decision to Sorenson, Young recorded her fifth loss with Invicta, tying Amber Brown for the most all-time.
NOT TO THE LIKING OF ‘THE STRIKING VIKING’: With only two wins across eight Invicta fights, Young holds the lowest winning percentage (.250) of any fighter to compete for Invicta at least five times.
DEAD EVEN: With the loss, Young evened her record at 10 wins with 10 losses, and she also holds one draw. Before losing, Young was riding a three-fight winning streak, her longest such streak since she started 4-0.
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: Coming into her bout with Sorenson, Young had fought 20 times in her career -- almost as much experience as the first 10 fighters on the card combined (23 fights).
MORANDIDN’T: Morandin came in more than three and a half pounds over the strawweight limit against Emily Ducote and lost by stoppage. It is the third time Morandin has come in heavy for an Invicta fight. She previously missed weight at Invicta 22 and Invicta Phoenix Rising 1 and was pulled from both of those fights. She becomes one of two Invicta fighters to miss weight thrice, joining DeAnna Bennett.
A REGULAR STEVE HARVEY: Although the decision was initially announced as a split call for Stephanie Geltmacher, a representative from the Kansas Athletic Commission entered the cage to fix the mistake and award the victory to Victoria Leonardo. This is not the first time judges have tabulated their scores incorrectly, with the most famous example of such an incident coming at UFC 41 in 2003. Initially, Matt Serra was declared the victor against Din Thomas, but upon further review, the commission reversed the call and gave the win to Thomas.
GELTMONEY: In picking up “Fight of the Night” honors for her scrap with Leonardo, Geltmacher earned her second bonus of that kind inside the Invicta cage. With it, she becomes the 10th fighter in promotional history to participate in multiple “Fight of the Night”-winning bouts.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into Invicta 36, Ducote had never finished an opponent with strikes (12 fights), Morandin had never been knocked out (12 fights) and Geltmacher had never been defeated (four fights).
Sherdog contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and working for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on twitter at @jaypettry.