Strawweight Title Fight Off Invicta FC 43, Harrison Now Headlines

Kayla Harrison PFL Championship 2019
Kayla Harrison Credit: PFL

A last minute shake-up has hit the Invicta FC 43 card.

While both Emily Ducote and Montserrat “Conejo” Ruiz made championship weight on Thursday, their fight for the promotion’s vacant strawweight has been postponed. Invicta FC officials announced via press release that due to “enhanced COVID-19 protocols,” the fight will be pushed back to a later date.

Ducote hit the mark at 114.5 pounds and Ruiz came in at 113.3 pounds.

As a result of Ducote vs. Ruiz falling off the card, Olympic gold medalist and PFL star Kayla Harrison now headlines. Harrison will be taking her first fight outside of the Professional Fighters League at the event, something the PFL granted permission for given the league is sitting out 2020 due to the pandemic.

Facing Courtney King, Harrison successfully made the cut to 145lbs for the first time for Invicta FC 43. In the PFL, she has competed exclusively at lightweight, winning that promotion’s 155lb tournament last year — and the million dollars that came with it.

Full results from the Invicta FC weigh-in can be found below. The action kicks off at 8PM ET on Friday, November 20, going down live on UFC Fight Pass.

Featherweight: Courtney King (145.2) vs. Kayla Harrison (145.9)
Flyweight: Stephanie Geltmacher (124.9) vs. Caitlin Sammons (124.2)
Bantamweight: Brittney Cloudy (137.3)* vs. Hope Chase (135.9)
Strawweight: Alexa Culp (115.6) vs. Meaghan Penning (115.9)
Flyweight: Juliana Miller (125.2) vs. Kendal Holowell (125.8)

* Cloudy missed the bantamweight limit of 136 pounds and was fined 25 percent of her fight purse

Update, 5:30PM ET: Invicta FC officials tell Cageside Press that the reason for the main event being pulled was that “There were positive tests that potentially exposed the main event athletes to the virus and safety is the utmost priority for Invicta FC events.”