Invicta Fighting Championships

History

When Zuffa, parent company of the UFC, purchased rival promotion Strikeforce in March 2011 (2011-03), Shannon Knapp received several calls from female fighters who were afraid of what the future might hold for them in Strikeforce since the UFC had never promoted a women's fight. As the women were calling Knapp for representation, she started looking at the issue and met Janet Martin, and between the two acquired the financial resources needed.

The term Invicta, a Latin word for "invincible and incomparable", was chosen by founders Knapp and Martin since the terms invincible and incomparable are very masculine, but the term appears in the feminine form in Latin, and they thought it was a good description for women's MMA.

Free online streamed events

After more than a year in the making, the promotion held its first event, Invicta FC 1 on April 28, 2012 (2012-04-28). It was headlined by a rematch between former Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion Marloes Coenen and French fighter Romy Ruyssen. The event also marked the MMA debut of 2008 Summer Olympics women's freestyle wrestling medalist Randi Miller. The event was available as a free video stream at the Invicta Fighting Championships webpage. After the event, fight of the night went to Kaitlin Young and Leslie Smith who fought to a draw whilst submission of the night was awarded to Sarah Schneider. Liz Carmouche and Jessica Penne both received social media bonuses.

On June 9, it was announced that Invicta has formed a strategic partnership with Japanese promotion JEWELS to cross-promote the world's top female fighters on their respective fight cards in the United States and Japan.

Invicta then held its second event (Invicta FC 2: Baszler vs. McMann) on July 28, 2012. Like the first event, it was made available as a free stream on the promotion's official website. The event was headlined by 2004 Summer Olympics women's freestyle wrestling silver medalist Sara McMann and Shayna Baszler. Carla Esparza and Barb Honchak made their promotional debuts on this card. As part of the alliance with Japanese promotion Jewels, Jewels lightweight champion Ayaka Hamasaki was set to face undefeated Austrian fighter Jasminka Cive as part of the main event but Cive was unable to secure her visa in time and was replaced by Lacey Shuckman.

On September 24, 2012, Invicta announced a strategic alliance with the Super Fight League, which aims to bring the best Indian female fighters to Invicta, whilst Invicta will aim to send world class female mixed martial artists to the Super Fight League.

Sara McMann was originally scheduled to fight for the Invicta FC Bantamweight Championship at Invicta FC 3 but this did not occur due to an injury to McMann.

Invicta FC 3: Penne vs. Sugiyama took place on October 6, 2012. Invicta continued their partnership with Jewels as Jessica Penne faced and beat the previously undefeated Jewels 105 lb champion Naho Sugiyama for the inaugural Invicta FC Atomweight Championship.

Also at Invicta FC 3, Leslie Smith fought Kaitlin Young in a rematch from their exciting "fight of the night" Invicta FC 1 bout where they fought to a draw. This time, Smith was able to get the better of Young and defeated her by TKO in the second round. Invicta FC3 also saw the promotional debut of long time Women's Bantamweight and Flyweight standout Tara LaRosa, as well as the debuts of Michelle Waterson and Cat Zingano. Fight of the night bonuses went to Michelle Waterson and Lacey Schuckman. The submission of the night bonus was split between Jessamyn Duke and Stephanie Frausto while knockout of the night went to promotional newcomer Joanne Calderwood.

Move to online pay-per-view events

On December 19, 2012, Shannon Knapp announced Invicta FC 4 would air as an online pay-per-view.

Invicta Fighting Championships held their fourth event (Invicta FC 4: Esparza vs. Hyatt) on January 5, 2013. The event was headlined by the inaugural Invicta FC Strawweight Championship bout between Carla Esparza and Bec Hyatt (in Hyatt's promotional debut). Esparza was originally scheduled to fight Ayaka Hamasaki for the title but Hamasaki pulled out of the fight due to commitments to defending her JEWELS lightweight title. Hamasaki was originally replaced by undefeated Brazilian fighter Claudia Gadelha but on December 28, Gadelha was also forced to withdraw after suffering a broken nose in training. Esparza defeated Hyatt to become the first Invicta FC Strawweight Champion. Also Alexis Davis defeated Shayna Baszler in the card's fight of the night and Rose Namajunas won knock-out of the night in her professional MMA debut.

Due to purchasing issues on the night of the event, the event was streamed for free rather than pay per view and it was announced that all buyers would be refunded.

Invicta FC 5: Penne vs. Waterson took place on April 5, 2013. The card was headlined by Jessica Penne who lost her Invicta FC Atomweight Championship to "The Karate Hottie" Michelle Waterson. The event featured a co-main event of Vanessa Porto vs. Barb Honchak with the latter being crowned as the first Invicta FC Flyweight Champion. In addition, Sarah Kaufman and "Cyborg" Cristiane Justino both won in their Invicta FC debuts. On this occasion, the online pay per view went smoothly, avoiding any issues experiences at Invicta FC 4.

During Invicta FC 5, there were no issues with the Ustream pay-per-view system as there had been in January.

Televised Pay-Per-View

Invicta FC 6: Coenen vs. Cyborg took place on 13 July 2013, featuring the crowning of Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino as the inaugural Featherweight champion and a Strawweight title eliminator match won by Claudia Gadelha over Ayaka Hamasaki (previously unbeaten JEWELS lightweight champion). The winner will face champion Carla Esparza. The card also featured wins by Jessica Penne, Lauren Taylor, Tecia Torres, Leslie Smith and Joanne Calderwood.

This event was aired on cable and satellite pay-per-view in the United States and Canada in addition to their online PPV stream, as the promotion had come to a deal with Integrated Sports Media for live viewing.

UFC Fight Pass

In early 2014 an agreement with the UFC was announced to air all future Invicta FC events exclusively on the UFC's subscription-based digital streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, and that the entire Invicta FC fight library would be added to the "On Demand" part of UFC Fight Pass. On July 10, Invicta and the UFC held a joint conference call to announce that Invicta FC 8 would be the first event to stream live on Fight Pass. The September 6th event was to be headlined by Michelle Waterson's first title defense of her atomweight belt vs. Yasuko Tamada.

Combate

On February 24, it was announced the partnership between Invicta and Combate. The deal allows the Brazilian channel the broadcast of Invicta live events as well the event library of Invicta in the South American country. The first Invicta event broadcast on Combate was Invicta FC 11: Cyborg vs. Tweet showing the Brazilian Invicta's featherweight champion Cris Cyborg versus the Canadian challenger Charmaine Tweet.

Rules

Invicta's current rules follows the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts that were originally established by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board and modified by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Featherweight Championship

Bantamweight Championship

Flyweight Championship

Strawweight Championship

Atomweight Championship

Honors and awards

In January 2015, it was announced that the promotion had beaten the UFC by 4% of the community vote to win the 2014 Best Promotion Award in the Awakening Fighters WMMA Awards.