Also on the card, original main event fighter Helena “Pretty” Kolesnyk made her Invicta FC debut against Pam “Bam” Sorenson. Sorenson was making a quick turnaround in the bout, after dropping a split decision to Ediane Gomes at Invicta FC 23. Sorenson made no mistake this time out, quickly securing an arm bar for the submission win over the newcomer. The bout was Sorenson’s second straight at featherweight.

In other featherweight action, Canadian Felicia Spencer opened the card by choking out America’s Amy Coleman.

For a full recap of all the night’s action, check out our Invicta FC 24: Dudieva vs. Borella Results and Recap!

Below, you can relive the night’s action courtesy of Invicta FC with a gallery of some of the best moments of the night!

The post Invicta FC 24: Dudieva vs. Borella Gallery appeared first on Cageside Press.

After the main event was shaken up not once but twice, seeing Megan Anderson then Tonya Evinger both scheduled to face promotional newcomer Helena Kolesnyk at featherweight then jump over to the UFC, a flyweight bout between former UFC fighter Milana Dudieva and Mara Romero Borella took its place. Kolesnyk, meanwhile, now faces Pam Sorenson, her third opponent scheduled in about as many weeks.

In the co-main event of the evening, an atomweight title eliminator looks to entertain, and former title challenger Jinh Yu Frey faces the durable Ashley Cummins to see who will be the next challenger for the 105lb belt.

Invicta FC 24 kicks off at 8PM EST on UFC Fight Pass — check back come fight time for full results and a recap of the night’s action!

Amy Coleman vs. Felicia Spencer

Opening up the Invicta FC 24 card in Kansas City was a featherweight scrap between American Amy Coleman and Canada’s Felicia Spencer. They clinched early, then Spencer landed a nice high kick. A second was caught, and the Canadian was dumped on her back, but not for long. Both ladies were hitting hard early. Spencer pressed Coleman back against the cage, landed a foot stop then completed a takedown, adding some ground strikes as Coleman muscled back up. It wouldn’t be long until Spender took them back down, pinning the arm of Coleman and landing some shots. She then transitioned to the back, and looked to lock in a choke. While it wasn’t quite under the chin, it was tight enough to force Coleman to tap!

Felicia Spencer def. Amy Coleman by submission (rear-naked choke), Round 1, 3:17

Sunna Davíðsdóttir vs. Kelly D’Angelo

Strawweight action was up next as Iceland’s Sunna Tsunami took on Kelly D’Angelo.  The pair exchanged almost immediately, with Davíðsdóttir then pressing the action against the cage in a clinch. D’Angelo was able to break free, and they exchanged again. By mid-round this was becoming a bit of a standup war with both fighters landing a number of strikes; Davíðsdóttir was also able to connect with several outside leg kicks. A straight shot by D’Angelo prompted Tsunami to shoot in, and she would convert the takedown. D’Angelo, however, didn’t stay down long. They’d continue to scrap it out to the bell, and this one was going to the second round.

A couple of exchanges opened round two before Davíðsdóttir scored a double leg and landed inside D’Angelo’s guard. D’Angelo would escape back to the feet only to have Sunna rush at her and score a second takedown. Davíðsdóttir quickly moved to side control, and began peppering D’Angelo with shots while moving to mount, then landing back in half guard. D’Angelo, for her part, was active off her back but could not make it back to her feet this time. Davíðsdóttir found herself in mount briefly again, and landed some hard short elbows to the heard of D’Angelo. The Iceland native would remain in control until the end of the second frame; that could have been a 10-8 round for Davíðsdóttir.

A bloodied D’Angelo was clearly behind entering the third, and needed to stay on her feet. She was able to succeed early in the round, but wasn’t able to connect with anything significant. However, around the three minute mark she did begin to up the pressure, finding her range. Not surprisingly, Davíðsdóttir reacted by clinching against the fence and looking to take the fight to the ground again. D’Angelo, however, was having none of it. She’d stay on her feet until the final thirty seconds of the round, when Sunna Tsunami finally got the action to the ground, and finished out the round on top.

Sunna Davíðsdóttir def. Kelly D’Angelo by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)

Miranda Maverick vs. Gabby Romero

Romero started the opening round looking to find a home for her jab. About ninety seconds in, Romero looked to toss her opponent to the ground with a headlock, which resulted in a rather awkward sequence that ended with Romero on her back and Maverick on top. Romero looked to sink in a heel hook, which Maverick fought off, but the attempt allowed Romero to get on top of her opponent. Romero would next work to an arm-bar, an attempt that looked tight, but position was an issue, and Maverick held on to be saved by the bell.

The second round opened with a feeling out process on the feet, then Romero looked for another takedown by way of a headlock; this time it simply wasn’t happening and they broke. Maverick then began to get the better of the exchanges, catching Romero with a hard uppercut that stunning her and sent her back-pedaling. Romero would look to escape danger by getting things back down to the ground but wound up with Maverick on top of her. That said, it likely bought Romero the time she needed to recover. Maverick continued to work from the top, looking to move to side control. Romero would survive the ground, but that was quite the scare.

Round three was going to be about who executed their game plan. A minute in, Romero had a body lock on a standing Maverick, holding on to her neck, against the fence. She couldn’t use that to take the fight down, and back in the center of the cage they clinched, before Maverick pushed her opponent up against the cage. Romero seemed to do slightly better on the feet in the third round, but couldn’t do much damage. Later, during a takedown attempt by Romero, Maverick was able to get the upper hand and land a big knee to the body. However, a key error by Maverick saw her give up her back; Romero then latched on with an arm-bar attempt. She would later try to switch to a triangle, but Maverick would weather the storm.

Miranda Maverick def. Gabby Romero by unanimous decision (30-26, 29-28, 30-27)

Barbara Acioly vs. Karina Rodriguez

Rodriguez kicked the lead leg of Acioly early, then caught her opponent with a combo that ended in a hard right, dropping her! Rodriguez moved in and began landing shots from the top while Acioly looked to scramble. Every time she changed positions, however, Rodriguez managed to follow and connect with more strikes, including some short punches and elbows. She briefly had the back and looked like she might go for a choke, but in the end stuck with the ground n’ pound, and the ref had seen enough, waving it off! Rodriguez scores the first round TKO.

Karina Rodriguez def. Barbara Acioly by TKO, Round 1, 2:14

Helena Kolesnyk vs. Pam Sorenson

After a brief exchange, Sorenson lands the trip early and takes the fight to the canvas. She moved to side control, looking to land elbows and forearm shots. Knees to the body followed. Holesnyk found herself unable to escape as she tried in vain to buck Sorenson off. Pam then moved to mount, and was soon raining down punches mixed with the odd elbow. Things were not looking good for Kolesnyk, and Sorenson then moved into position for an arm bar, locking it in. Kolesnyk tried to fight it, but within moments, she had to tap!

Pam Sorenson def. Helena Kolesnyk by submission (arm bar), Round 1, 3:12

Jinh Yu Frey vs. Ashley Cummins

Cummins came out aggressive early, throwing a combo then a big head kick that was blocked but still looked to catch Frey by surprise. They clinched, and Frey reversed, then scored a single leg, taking Cummins to the mat. Closed guard for Cummins. Ashley flashed an arm bar attempt for a moment, but that was enough to set off a scramble that allowed Cummins to get back on her feet. Frey quickly worked for another single leg, but this time could not complete it.  A couple of exchanges followed, then Frey changed levels and took Cummins back down. This time, Frey would land some hammer fists before the fight went back to the feet. Cummins continued to be aggressive in the standup department, launching several high kicks and pressing forward consistently.

Early on in the second, Frey once again scored a takedown, this time early in the round, and began working body-head with punches. Cummins looked for an arm bar once again, and Frey defended by pressing her shin against the face of Cummins. A transition and Cummins locked in the arm bar again, tight! Incredibly, Frey escaped again. During the scrambles, Frey was able to land some hammer fists, while Cummins again attempted an arm bar. That attempt was short lived, and they moved back to the feet. Before long, Frey had scored another takedown, and this time found herself in Cummins’ full guard. However, before long she was hit with another arm bar attempt, and could not pull free. She rode out the round however, but Cummins may have claimed the round staying active off her back.

The third round saw Cummins once again come out as the aggressor on the feet, while Frey went back to the take down, but you had to wonder if those arm bar attempts wouldn’t pay off eventually. This time Frey seemed hyper-aware of keeping her arms free, and managed to take the back of Cummins about midway through the round. Cummins was able to roll through however, and Frey found herself in half guard. With over a minute to go Cummins again latched on to the arm, but Frey stayed stacked and Cummins gave up on the attempt. It would go to the scorecards, and a tough one to score it was.

Jinh Yu Frey def. Ashley Cummins by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Milana Dudieva vs. Mara Romero Borella

Former UFC bantamweight Milana Dudieva moved to flyweight for her Invicta FC debut against Mara Romero Broella in the main event of the evening. Dudieva landed a judo toss to take things down early. Borella managed to keep her in half guard, and got back to her feet in due course. On the feet, Broella opted to counter punch, with Dudieva walking her down. With a minute to go, Dudieva was looking for a guillotine she didn’t have, but as they transitioned the Russian refused to let go of her grip. She finished the round with her hands still locked together, but that had to take something out of her arms.

In the second, the action stayed standing early, with Borella pressing the action against the cage ninety seconds in and landing the takedown. Dudieva managed to scramble to half guard. Borella tried to work from that position, landing some strikes from the top. Borella would control the remainder of the round from there, but couldn’t do much in the way of damage, and never came close to finishing the fight.

Dudieva went looking for the hip toss early in the third, but Borella was able to counter, and land a takedown of her own. Borella stayed heavy on an active Dudieva, who looked for an arm bar, then triangle. Borella tried slamming Dudieva to break free, but the Russian held on to the hold, and began landing strikes from the bottom. Once free, with just two minutes left in the round, Borella managed to trap an arm of her opponent, making working from the top a little easier. A big scramble saw Dudieva get off the bottom, but she landed right in a triangle attempt, and both women landed strikes from the bottom. That took things to the bell!

Mara Romero Borella def. Milana Dudieva by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)

Invicta FC 24: Dudieva vs. Borella Results:

Mara Romero Borella def. Milana Dudieva by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
Jinh Yu Frey def. Ashley Cummins by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Pam Sorenson def. Helena Kolesnyk by submission (arm bar), Round 1, 3:12
Karina Rodriguez def. Barbara Acioly by TKO, Round 1, 2:14
Miranda Maverick def. Gabby Romero by unanimous decision (30-26, 29-28, 30-27)
Sunna Davíðsdóttir def. Kelly D’Angelo by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
Felicia Spencer def. Amy Coleman by submission (rear-naked choke), Round 1, 3:17

The post Invicta FC 24 Results: Borella, Frey Pick Up Key Wins appeared first on Cageside Press.

Cummins spoke with Cageside Press about the Frey fight, and how she got her start in MMA, leading into Invicta FC 24 this weekend.

So how did a kid who grew up playing soccer fall in love with mixed martial arts? “I spent my whole childhood from five years old to eighteen doing karate and soccer” she explained. “I always wanted to do kickboxing and wrestling in high school, I knew I wanted to fight, but my parents wouldn’t let me. Once I started my freshman year of college, I was like ‘well they can’t stop me anymore’ so I started training at a local MMA gym, and I just fell in love with it right away.”

That love of MMA led to her first professional fight in 2011. She won that night, securing a submission against Chelsea Colarelli at XFL 5, and less than a year later, she was fighting it out in Invicta FC, making her promotional debut at their inaugural event, at the time a strawweight. Cummins has been a staple of the promotion ever since, making just one trip outside the all-female promotion to take a Bellator fight last year. Invicta is the place for atomweights, however.

And thankfully, her parents have long since come around to the idea of her fighting. “They’re obsessed with it now” she said. “My parents are my number one fans, they go to all my fights, they’re huge supporters of my MMA career.”

That career has brought her to a point where she could soon be fighting for a title. Cummins (5-3) will have won three straight if she’s successful Saturday night, and given Frey’s status as a former title challenger, a win would be quite the notch on her belt.

That said, Cummins still has a life, and specifically a career, outside of fighting, as she’s an active police officer in St. Louis County. So how does she handle the balance between her law enforcement career, and her personal life?

“I’ve been doing both for so long, I’m just able to balance it with no problem” Cummins stated, adding “I’ve been doing MMA for ten years, I’ve been an officer for almost eight years. When you do both for so long, you get to a point where it’s just easy, it’s like second nature to be able to balance both professions.”

What got her into law enforcement originally? “It sounds cliche,” she answered, “but I wanted to try to help the community by making it safer. A lot of people say that, but that was honestly my interest in law enforcement.” An interest that dictated the course of her education and career. “I went to college with the goal to get a degree in criminal justice, and soon as I got my degree, I joined the police academy right away.”

With fighter pay always being a hot button issue, is this one of those situations where a fighter has to work to make ends meet? For Cummins, that’s not the reason she’s working in policing. “I get asked that question a lot, people ask ‘if you ever made a ton of money fighting MMA, would you quit law enforcement?'” she said. “My answer is always no. I love my career of being a police officer, and I love my career of being a fighter. I want to do both. I would be sad without either, with just one. I plan on doing both as long as I can.”

Has the police force been supportive of her pulling double duty? Other aspiring police officers, like the UFC’s Sean Pierson, have hit road blocks along the way. Luckily, it’s been a mostly positive experience for Cummins. “For the most part, I’d say yeah” she told us. “When I was in the police academy, I think they weren’t supportive, I ran into a couple problems here and there. But overall since then, since I’ve gotten out of the academy, for the past seven and a half years they’ve been great.”

That’s not to say there hasn’t been some concern. “There was a point in my career, after I fought Joanne Calderwood, I had to get surgery on my face, to get my vision back. I had to get a plate under my right eye. I had three broken orbital bones. I think at that point my department was a little concerned, they were like ‘okay, you almost lost your vision permanently, are you still going to do this?'” In the end, however, they supported Cummins’ decision. “They’ve never told me ‘you can’t do this.’ They’ve always been supportive, but obviously they worry.”

With an injury that severe, did the atomweight ever consider walking away from the fight game?

“Oh absolutely, there’s been a couple times in my career where I told myself I’m done, I’m not doing this sport anymore” Cummins replied. “But I’m really competitive, I’m not a quitter and every time I say ‘I’m done, I’m retired’ I’m like ‘nope!’ I have more to prove, I have more goals out there I want to accomplish, and I just want to keep going.”

Cummins feels both careers compliment each other. “My police career helps my MMA career. There have been situations in my police career that were scary, and someone was possibly trying to take my life, and for me that helps with MMA. Everyone gets nervous before a fight, and stresses” she explained. “Going into the cage, there’s not nearly the amount of stress as being in a situation where you could get possibly hurt and killed.”

She also noted that MMA is becoming more a part of law enforcement training, specifically ground fighting. “I think over the years, a lot of the departments across the U.S. have picked up a lot more ground fighting, a lot more jiu-jitsu, compared to ten years ago when I think they didn’t have much ground fighting in the training. Now they’ve picked up a lot of it, so I enjoy seeing that because I think it’s very crucial and essential for police work to know how to fight on the ground.”

On the next page we talk The Ultimate Fighter, Cummins’ Bellator MMA appearance, andof course Cummins fight with Jinh Yu Frey at Invicta FC 25.

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Last September, Jinh Yu Frey was in a heated battle with champ Ayaka Hamasaki. Frey had her mounted, had her in danger, and things were looking up early. Then late in the second round, Hamasaki opened up a cut on Frey that wouldn’t look out of place in any MMA bout. With so little time left in the round, it was one of those cuts that would usually be left for the cutman to tend to between rounds. Instead, the ringside doctor was called in, and the fight called off. A tough pill to swallow in a fight that was still very much up for grabs.

Cageside Press spoke to Frey ahead of her Invicta FC 24 bout later this month, where we talked about the Hamasaki fight, current opponent Ashley Cummins, and where atomweight fits in the bigger picture.

As far as that title fight against Hamasaki at Invicta FC 19 is concerned, Frey certainly found some positives. Among them, “that I am one of the top fighters in my division. That I was in there with arguably the best in the world and I had her on her heels, and had her in a lot of danger” she said.

Still, it was a rough stoppage, one Frey thinks came too soon. “I think it should have been let go” she said of the decision to wave off the bout. “There was like twenty seconds left in the round. At least give the cutman an opportunity to work on it.”

It’s hard to argue against her, especially when re-watching the fight. Many bloodied fighters have been allowed to carry on with far worse damage. “I feel like [the cutman] was able to stop the bleeding pretty quick. Head wounds, there’s a lot of blood flow in the head, and so head wounds always bleed quite a bit, especially because we were kind of in the clinch, and I was a bit leaned over so of course gravity is pulling that out as well. They always look a little bit worse than what they are, so I think the cutman should have had an opportunity to work on it” she continued. “If it was that bad, he could have easily just stopped it in the third. But give him a chance to work on it, give me a chance to work.”

The chance to work is what Jinh Yu Frey is looking for here, at Invicta FC 24. And for the time being, she’s happy to call atomweight her home. While champ Ayaka Hamasaki recently experimented at strawweight, and the division could be a back door into the UFC, Frey has more immediate goals in the 105lb weight class.

On a potential move up in weight, Frey told Cageside Press that “it’s been an idea that’s been kicked around; I don’t think I’m going to make any decisions on that until… I have this goal I’d like to finish, and it’s important to me, regardless of the fact that maybe I’d be getting more exposure or paid better or whatever in the UFC, I would be just another UFC fighter, whereas if I stay at 105, I can make this run at the title, and be a world champion.” That, she explained, is “really more important to me than having more widespread media exposure at this point.”

Besides, the UFC may not have its doors closed to atomweights for long, the way Frey sees it. “At this point, there’s only one division left to add in the UFC, and they seem like they’ve been adding them at a pretty good pace, so who knows, maybe by the end of the year they’ll end up adding the atomweight division anyway.”

In the meantime, there’s the Invicta FC title picture, and the belt Frey is looking for. Invicta FC President Shannon Knapp has referred to the bout between Jinh Yu Frey and Ashley Cummins as a title eliminator, but what’s the fighter’s take?

“I think it’s kind of up in the air, because they’re kind of going along with [Hamasaki’s] wishes” she stated. “Immediately after the [Invicta FC 19] fight, I was reassured I would get an immediate title rematch, but that wasn’t the case, because they’re letting Ayaka choose her own path, and she’s been wanting to fight up. Invicta’s done what they can, but they can’t make Ayaka fight at 105, so we’ll just kind of wait and see how things play out after this one.”

So the immediate focus will, of course, be on her Invicta FC 24 opponent, and the chips will fall where they may. Frey’s take on Cummins?

“She’s a really aggressive fighter, I think she’s a great fighter” summed up Frey. “I expect to see pretty much just her trying to bully her way forward and push me into the cage and work on her takedowns.” Of course, that won’t be easy, as Frey has not rested on her laurels in the months since her last appearance.

“I’ve been working on a lot of different things. A year is a long time to be out of the cage, but I haven’t been pilfering my time” she explained. “I’ve been spending a lot of time working on things I felt like I needed to work on, trying to incorporate some new things. For this camp I spent quite a bit of time out in Iceland, and right now I’m in Oklahoma City with Bellator’s Emily Ducote, just getting some really great training in with new partners.”

“I’ve definitely been putting in a lot of hard work, and hopefully in about two weeks, it’ll show.”

On the next page, we talk about training in Iceland, cancelled fights, and leaving her day job behind to focus on MMA.

The post Interview: Jinh Yu Frey on the Hunt for Gold at Invicta FC 24 appeared first on Cageside Press.

Evinger was last seen at Invicta FC 22, where she successfully defended her bantamweight crown against Yana Kunitskaya. That was a rematch of their Invicta FC 20 meeting, which resulted in a submission win for Kunitskaya being overturned due to a referee error.

Kolesnyk enters the promotion on a three fight win streak, following a no contest at WBK 12 in 2016. All five of her wins have come via stoppage.

Also announced for the Invicta FC 24 card are the following bouts:

Milana Dudieva vs. Mara Romero Borella
Raquel Pa’aluhi vs. Yana Kunitskaya
Jinh Yu Frey vs. Ashley Cummins
Karina Rodríguez vs. Bárbara Acioly
Sunna Rannveig Davíðsdóttir vs. Kelly D’Angelo
Mallory Martin vs. Tiffany Masters
Felicia Spencer vs. Amy Coleman

Dudieva (11–5) will be making her Invicta debut after going 1-2 in the UFC. Her opponent, Mara Romero Borella, will also be making her promotional debut. Ultimate Fighter veteran Ashley Cummins, who has also appeared with Bellator, returns to the Invicta FC cage as well that night. Cummins is on a two fight win streak heading into the bout against Jinh Yu Frey. Frey (5–2) is 3-2 overall in Invicta, but suffered her second pro loss at Invicta FC 19, to Ayaka Hamasaki.

Invicta FC 24 takes place July 15 at Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City, Mo. The event will air on UFC Fight Pass.

The post Invicta FC 24 Sees Tonya Evinger Move Up In Weight For Main Event, Additional Fights Confirmed appeared first on Cageside Press.

Anderson (8-2) has been on a tear in the featherweight division dating back to early 2016, knocking out four straight opponents. Most recently, she finished Charmaine Tweet at Invicta FC 21 in January. That won her the Invicta FC interim featherweight championship, as the undisputed title had been held by Cris “Cyborg” Justino. However, Cyborg announced earlier this year that she was dropping the belt to turn her full attention to the UFC. After Cyborg vacated the title, Anderson became the undisputed Invicta FC featherweight champion.

Cyborg and Anderson have both been campaigning for a bout under the UFC banner of late. UFC Featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie recently announced that she was unwilling to fight Cyborg, and heading back down to bantamweight. However, it appears the UFC will be going in another direction, with Anderson having been booked by Invicta for July.

Kolesnyk (5-0, 1NC) will be making her Invicta FC debut against Anderson. The Ukrainian native has won all five of her professional fights outside of a No Contest back in March of 2016. A Muay Thai fighter, she captured bronze at the IFMA World Muay Thai Championships in 2015.

Invicta FC 24: Anderson vs Kolesnyk streams live on UFC Fight Pass. Tickets go on sale via Ticketfly.com June 3 at 10AM CT.

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