Fight Facts: Invicta FC Phoenix Rising Series 1

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF INVICTA FIGHTS: 314
TOTAL NUMBER OF INVICTA EVENTS: 35

Invicta Fighting Championships on Friday put on its first one-night tournament in the city that hosted its inaugural fight card in 2012. Invicta Phoenix Rising Series 1 featured a record number of split verdicts, one of the smallest champions on record and the first fighter in a major promotion to win three fights in one night in years.

WELCOME BACK, OLD FRIEND: Invicta put on its first tournament in the flyweight division at Invicta 34 in February. However, that event only staged first-round matchups, making Invicta Phoenix Rising Series 1 the first show in company history to feature a one-night tournament.

TALLYING THEIR TENS AND NINES: Even though most of the bouts were one-round affairs, seven fights went to the scorecards, tying Invicta 6 and Invicta 23 for the third-most decisions at one event in Invicta history. Invicta 4 and Invicta 9 are tied with the most, with eight each.

JUST SAY ‘MATTE’: With multiple stoppages but none by knockout, this event was the first since Invicta 20 in 2016 with all of its finishes ending by submission.

SPLITSVILLE: Four bouts at Invicta Phoenix Rising Series 1 ended in split decisions, the most at an event in Invicta history.

‘THE HAMMER’: In notching two submissions and a decision win, Brianna Van Buren secured the vacant Invicta strawweight belt. She became the first fighter in a major organization to win three bouts at a single event since Mark Coleman prevailed over Igor Vovchanchyn, Kazuyuki Fujita and Akira Shoji at the Pride Grand Prix 2000: Finals. Also of note, Andres Quintana (2018) and Levy Marroquin (2017) each won their eight-man one-night tournaments in their respective Combate Americas “Copa Combate” events. Over in KSW, 10 fighters won various eight-man tournaments in the promotion’s first several events, with each of those 10 scoring three wins in a single night.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE: Both Van Buren and Kailin Curran won multiple times at the event, becoming the first Invicta fighters to ever win more than once at a single show.

BIG THINGS, SMALL PACKAGES: A powerful 60 inches in stature, Van Buren tied Herica Tiburcio as the most diminutive champion in Invicta history. However, Tiburcio competed at atomweight.

LET US DO THE PROCESSION OF SHAME NOW: Mizuki Inoue and Janaisa Morandin were both slated to participate in the tournament, and both women encountered weight issues that prohibited them from competing. Morandin missed weight and was pulled, while Inoue could not get medically cleared to even step on the scales. Amber Brown and Manjit Kolekar took their places.

MIGHT AS WELL TRY: Although Brown and Kolekar replaced Inoue and Morandin in the tournament, neither woman managed to capitalize on her sudden promotion in the tournament. Both were defeated by decision.

JUDGES TAKE NOTICE: After earning a decision win over Danielle Taylor before losing on the scorecards to Van Buren, 13 of Juliana Lima’s 16 career bouts have reached the judges. Lima’s lone career stoppage loss came to Tecia Torres by rear-naked choke at “The Ultimate Fighter 25” Finale in 2017. It remains the only stoppage win of Torres’ career.

BULLY BULLIED: In dropping a decision to Sharon Jacobson in the quarterfinals, Brown picked up her fifth loss inside the Invicta cage -- the most in promotional history.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into Invicta Phoenix Rising Series 1, Itzel Esquivel had never lost on the scorecards (six fights), Kolekar had never been finished (13 fights) and Sunna Rannveig Davidsdottir had never been defeated (three fights).

SHE AIN’T NO FORTUNATE SON: Kay Hansen walked out to “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival and lost a close decision to Magdalena Sormova. Over in the UFC, no recorded fighters have ever won after choosing that song as their entrance music.

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.