Invicta FC, Sara McMann and Women’s MMA: The Morning News Roundup – 7.29.12

A weekend without the UFC, Strikeforce or Bellator can often mean a weekend without happiness. Okay, not really. But if that actually is the case with you, please, get help. Or get a hobby or something. Anyway, there were no offerings from the aforementioned titans of mixed martial arts; however, last night the Invicta Fighting Championships had its second installment, and in terms of high-level MMA action, it pretty much rocked. Therein lies where this morning's news is coming from.

• Unless you were one of the lucky few to make the trek out to Kansas City to see the event in person, you were forced to watch Invicta FC via the free stream broadcast over the organization's website. You were also forced to deal with a stream that was virtually non-existent for the first half of the fourteen-bout card, which, according to the event promoter Shannon Knapp, was attributed to crashed servers. But hey, it was free, and when the feed was strong, we got to see some exciting stuff, like Strikeforce veterans Amanda Nunes and Liz Carmouche kick butt and take names. Reviews of the event can be found here, here and here. Personally, I rated it four out of five mouthpieces.

• Olympic Freestyle wrestling Silver Medalist Sara McMann came away with another win in Invicta FC's thrilling main event, bringing her unblemished record up to 6-0 with a unanimous decision win over the ultra-tough Shayna Baszler. The bout was a close one and hotly contested right up to the final bell; in the waning seconds, Baszler rocked McMann with strikes, and McMann was moments away from doing "the Worm". But the bell rang and it went to the judges, and that was all she wrote. The victory puts McMann in line for a shot at the Invicta FC bantamweight title, which is vacant and waiting for someone worthy to claim it.

• With over 200,000 purported Internet viewers, the first Invicta FC event was considered a success, and last night's numbers have to at least be in that ballpark. So where does that put the current state of female MMA? Probably in a very good place, especially with Strikeforce champ Ronda Rousey's step up in exposure and Invicta FC already planning a third event. Say what you will about women fighting, but there's a market for it — and right now, that market is strong.

• Yesterday was UFC president Dana White's birthday. I hope that in honor of the occasion you all cornered your pets and screamed at them "Do you want to be a [expletive] fighter?" I know I did.

Jim Genia tweets the darndest things.