Cris “Cyborg” Justino returns @OC Hangar

By The DuCross Brothers, 1.17.2016

Saturday night in Costa Mesa, CA at the OC Hangar Invicta sold out the arena with 1,504 packed into the hangar.  For the first time going to an invicta fight we didn’t know what to expect from this venue, we noticed that the set up wasn’t too bad according to many the media set up was better so, for our first show that was a good thing.

On this card which was head lined by Cris “Cyborg” Justino defending her Invicta title was not the only title that was on the line this night the Co Main Event was Livia Renata Souza taking on DeAnna Bennett. The interesting storyline that came from that co main event was that Souza was the first outsider to win the Invicta Straw Weight Championship and defend it since Carla Esparza left Invicta slamming that revolving door at the straw weight division (At Least for now) hitting DeAnne Bennett with a liver kick that sent her crashing to the mat where Souza was able to jump on her to finish the fight.

Next up, was the main event that was headlined by Cris “Cyborg” Justino vs Daria Ibragimova. On paper you would think that Daria might have a chance against Cris but, see some times regardless of who you are there is just that one superior athlete which Daria Ibragimova is not! Daria came out looking for a single leg, holding on to it as if it was the last chicken leg from Thanksgiving dinner and your fighting over who gets that last one so you just hold on until someone lets go. Similar happened in this fight that ultimately saw Cris Cyborg continue to just pepper Daria was relentless shots that Daria just couldn’t handle. Something that is a cool moment was when Cris came out that OC Hangar went crazy.

The rest of night was filled out with some tough fights and for a fight card that had all Women (7 WMMA Fights) was a good thing to see because we are advocates for Women MMA as we see that we should see more women fights but, I guess guys still don’t like seeing women bleed or get battered. It is still something tough to watch I get it. Girls like Mizuki Inoue who is only 21 years Old with 13 professional fights is maybe Invicta’s own Sage Northcutt. At this point Inoue got the win via arm bar that she was trying for most of the night. Inoue knew her stand up wasn’t up to par with Lacy Schuckman getting the 3^rd round submission via arm should never have happened because towards the end of the second round Inoue was placed in an inverted triangle by Lacy  that resulted in Inoue tapping out that the ref clearly missed.  After the fight, Inoue was interviewed by Invicta’s interviewer where she became very uneasy when asked about tapping out at this level that should never happen just like New England Patriots with #CionGate

Another honorable mention would have to be from the newly released Angela “Overkill” Hill that was making her debut in Invicta. Angela a San Diego Native was able to fight in her backyard with much improved striking. Angela Hill was able to put combos together and then able to finish Alida Gray with a knee to the liver. Once again a liver hit does it in for a fighter. Shannon Knapp and Co. put on one heck of a showing for the fight fans. Only issue we had was that we had to wait for a fight to start because of the ambulance missing because it took a fighter to the hospital because of this we had a 25 mins delay until the ambulance came.

Overall if you have not been to an invicta fight then you need to go see one. Also, Invicta FC 16 will be in Las Vegas