10/28/23: Invicta FC Champion Calls For UFC Opportunity After Title Win
Danni McCormack's win leads the MMA headlines for Saturday
Welcome to the Knockdown Daily. We’re covering a wide range of topics today. First, we’ll go around the regionals and check in on the results from Friday night. Then, we’ll preview the two main shows taking place today. After that, we’ll wrap things up with a lengthy news and notes section. Let’s begin!
Invicta FC Strawweight Champion Danni McCormack Defends Title In Dominant Showing, Calls For UFC Opportunity
Danni McCormack defended her Invicta FC Strawweight Championship for the first time on Friday night, capping off a dominant performance against Karolina Wojcik in the fourth round with a rear naked choke submission.
McCormack’s submission headlined Invicta FC 54 from the Citizens House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
For the first three rounds of her performance, McCormack pressured Wojcik on the feet. She walked the Polish talent down with strikes and out-landed her. She then took the fight to the ground in the first of two championship rounds, beginning the finishing sequence for the bout.
McCormack took the back of Wojcik after earning a takedown fourth round. She then applied a rear naked choke, which put Wojcik unconscious and caused the referee to stop the fight.
McCormack has now picked up three consecutive wins in Invicta FC. She captured their strawweight title in March, dethroning Valesca Machado in a five-round unanimous decision result.
Wojcik, a former KSW and “Dana White’s Contender Series” fighter, was coming off a split decision victory over Ediana Silva from earlier this year.
Following her win, McCormack called out UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, telling him to “let me know what you think about that one.”
Invicta FC experienced a change in their co-main event in the hours leading up to the card on Friday. Due to illness, Kalinadra Faria withdrew from her strawweight fight against Valesca Machado, per Nolan King of MMA Junkie. Faria was a short-notice opponent for Machado this weekend.
Here are the results from the card:
Main Card (8:00PM EDT) (Youtube)
Bout 5: Danni McCormack def. Karolina Wojcik via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 4, 1:22) (Invicta FC Strawweight Championship)
Bout 4: Kristina Williams def. Dee Begley via Decision, Split
Bout 3: Andrea Amaro def. Hilarie Rose via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 1, 4:19)
Bout 2: Riley Martinez def. Julia Dorny via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 1, 1:48)
Bout 1: Maria Djukic def. Fernanda Araujo via Decision, Unanimous
Daniel Frunza Keeps Streak Going With Last-Minute Finish
Daniel Frunza scored a buzzer-beater victory in the main event of LFA 170, stopping Haris Talundzic with just one second to spare in their three-round welterweight bout from the Dobson Arena in Vail, Colorado, USA.
Frunza floored Talundzic in the closing seconds of their fight with an elbow to the head. He kept the pressure on him after this moment, landing ground and pound until the referee intervened.
Due to the fact that the stoppage came so close to the end of the round, some inside the venue wondered if the result would be marked down as a stoppage for Frunza or if the fight would go to a decision.
Prior to the finish, the three-round bout was relatively slow-paced. Talundzic was able to stop Frunza from striking at moments by putting him up against the cage.
Frunza has now earned a pair of finishes in the LFA cage. He won his promotional debut just two months ago, finishing Jalin Fuller within a round with strikes. Friday was his fourth consecutive finish win.
Talundzic was searching for his first main event win. His previous headlining appearance, a fight against Chris Brown last year, was a decision defeat. His last fight before Friday was a submission victory against Omoyele Gonzalez.
Frunza wasn’t the only one who scored a big finish on LFA 170. In the co-main event, Myktybek Orolbai earned a walk-off knockout in the second round.
A small change was made to LFA 170 on Thursday after the weigh-ins. Diana Sanchez was pulled from her fight against Brittany Camozzi after missing weight by five pounds.
Here are the quick results for LFA 170:
Main Card (10:00PM EDT / 7:00PM PDT) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 11: Daniel Frunza def. Haris Talundzic via TKO, Strikes (RD 3, 4:59)
Bout 10: Myktybek Orolbai def. Hayward Charles via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 0:41)
Bout 9: Isaac Thomson def. AJ Robb via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 8: Caio Machado def. Ilyor Bakhtiyar Uulu via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 3, 3:02)
Bout 7: Shannon Clark def. Nejra Repp via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 6: Jordan Burkholder def. Daniel Gonzales via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 2, 3:51)
Preliminary Card
Bout 5: Carlos Rivera def. Hondo Gutierrez via Submission, Guillotine Choke (RD 2, 1:57)
Bout 4: Chaz Polson def. Austin Waterman via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 2, 3:52)
Bout 3: Keynan Davis def. Walter Saragosa via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 0:43)
Bout 2: Eli Wise def. Juan Sarrios via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 2:37) (Amateur)
Bout 1: Christian Garcia def. Jacob Hill via Decision, Unanimous (Amateur)
Saturday Preview: A ‘What If’ For Boxing and MMA Fans, Plus A Focus on Italy
Tyson Fury, a boxer who has yet to lose through 34 appearances in boxing, will go up against Francis Ngannou, an MMA fighter who has never competed in boxing before, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia today. Ngannou will be crossing over after a successful UFC run that earned him the promotion’s heavyweight championship in 2021.
On paper, it is an incredibly lopsided matchup. Ngannou is a huge underdog in the eyes of almost everyone. And yet, there is a lot of interest in this fight. Part of this is because Ngannou and Fury are two incredibly big names in combat sports who will have an audience around anything they do. But another reason why the focus is so big on this fight is the “what if” factor of it. What if you put a hard-hitting person like Ngannou against Fury? That’s a question that has reeled many in.
MMA fans have seen before what happens when a fighter from the sport challenges one of boxing’s greats — it doesn’t end well. This hasn’t stopped many from having interest in this fight. The idea that any singular punch from Ngannou could end it, or the fact that you never truly know the result of a matchup until it actually happens, is what has kept so many people interested in this pairing. In just a few hours, we’ll see whether the result will be in line with what nearly everyone expects, or if Ngannou can pull off one of the most shocking performances of the year.
Over on the MMA side of things on Saturday, Cage Warriors will showcase a large number of Italian prospects when they host an event in Rome, Italy. In a card with 20 Italian fighters, it will be Simone Patrizi and Dumitro Girlean that will headline the card at lightweight.
Patrizi is coming off a successful Cage Warriors debut from May, stopping Ermil Xhaferi in the third round of a bout with Stikres. He’ll be searching for his fourth consecutive victory when he appears this weekend.
For Girlean, this weekend is less about keeping momentum going and more about a focus on bouncing back. He had a three-fight winning streak broken in his last fight, taking a first-round submission defeat to Leon Hill in July.
Cage Warriors 162 is an incredibly busy card full of solid matchups. Here’s the full lineup:
Main Card (3:00PM EDT / 9:00PM CEST) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 13: Simone Patrizi (6-1) vs. Dumitru Girlean (6-2) (Lightweight)
Bout 12: Simone D’Anna (9-4) vs. Alberth Dias (6-3) (Featherweight)
Bout 11: Michelangelo Lupoli (6-3) vs. Nicolas Leblond (8-4) (Flyweight)
Bout 10: Leon Aliu (10-3) vs. Alan Carlos (13-11) (Middleweight)
Bout 9: Luco Iovine (18-10) vs. Andrey Tyshchenko (6-2) (Bantamweight)
Preliminary Card (11:45AM EDT / 5:45PM CEST) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 8: Tanio Pagliariccio (8-3) vs. Sam Creasey (17-5) (Flyweight)
Bout 7: Daniel Ghercioiu (0-0) vs. Samir Sadikov (0-0) (Featherweight)
Bout 6: Giuseppe Mastrogiacomo (3-0) vs. Valentino Riva (3-0) (Featherweight)
Bout 5: Emanuele Tetti (1-0) vs. Alessio Barbara (3-2) (Flyweight)
Bout 4: Alex Bertinazzi (4-2) vs. Baris Adiguzel (3-1) (Featherweight)
Bout 3: Bartolomeo Esposto (0-3) vs. Khadim Dia (3-0) (Middleweight)
Bout 2: Costantin Dolghi (0-1) vs. Daniele Battaglia (0-0) (Welterweight)
Bout 1: Matteo Martignoni (1-0) vs. Alessandro Lupieri (0-2) (Featherweight)
Notes On: UFC, PFL, Cage Warriors, ONE Championship & LFA
Steve Erceg (10-1) has received a new opponent for UFC 295 on November 11th. After Matt Schnell (16-7) withdrew from their flyweight bout, Erceg has been put up against Alessandro Costa (13-3), per Carlos Contreras Legaspi of ESPN Deportes. Costa scored his first UFC victory in June, stopping Jimmy Flick in the second round with strikes.
Cage Warriors revealed Friday that a medical issue has forced Micol di Segni (10-5) out of her strawweight bout on Saturday against Samantha Jean-Francois (8-6).
Two MMA fights took place on Friday morning as part of ONE Championship’s “Friday Fights 38” card from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Mark Abelardo (22-10) scored another finish victory, putting away Georgy Shakhruramazanov (13-2) late in the second round with strikes. Abelardo is now on a winning streak of two or more fights for the first time since 2019.
Fritz Biagtan (6-1) handed prospect Deepak Bhardwaj (2-1) his first pro loss, stopping him in just 73 seconds with strikes. Biagtan has now earned two consecutive wins in ONE Championship.
PFL has announced the undercard for the 2023 PFL Europe Championships, which will take place at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
Appearing for the fourth time in a PFL cage, Nate Kelly (8-2) will try to keep his momentum going when he faces Dimitry Solimeis (6-3) at featherweight.
Semi-finalist in the PFL Europe lightweight tournament, Dylan Tuke (6-4), will go up against Yazid Chouchane (10-3), who is coming off a successful PFL debut from September.
All eight of the wins that Lewis McGrillen-Evans (8-0) has earned so far as a pro have come in the first or second rounds of a fight, including two PFL performances. He’ll look for another when he faces Alex Matiss (6-2), who doesn’t have a flawless record but has also earned all of his wins via finish.
Former UFC and Bellator talent Brett Johns (19-3) will make his PFL debut against David Tonatiuh Crol (11-7). It will be Johns’ first featherweight appearance in more than a decade.
Former Brave CF Lightweight Champion Cleiton Silva (16-3) has been matched up against eight-fight UFC alum Tom Breese (17-4), who won a title in Levels Fight League earlier this year.
After earning the Levels Fight League Lightweight Championship in July, Andreeas Binder (8-2) will make his PFL debut against Bellator vet Daniele Scatizzi (12-7).
Appearing for the first time since losing the Cage Warriors Bantamweight Championship, Dominique Wooding (9-5) will meet Ben Davis (8-6).
Fighting to bounce back from his first pro loss, which he took in his PFL debut, Connor Hughes (7-1) will go up against Sebas Santana Guedes (9-6-1) in a lightweight bout.
LFA has announced a pair of title fights for LFA 173, which will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on December 15th.
LFA Middleweight Champion Lucas Fernando (9-2) will unify belts with interim titleholder Azamat Bekoev (16-3) in the main event. An interim belt was introduced this year, as Fernando was absent from LFA this summer to compete on an episode of “Dana White’s Contender Series.” Bekoev went five rounds against Dylan Budka in June to earn a split-decision win for the interim title.
Undefeated Giovanna Canuto (4-0) will meet Natasha Kuziutina (4-1) for the interim LFA Strawweight Championship. Kuziutina is on a three-fight winning streak that she obtained in Titan FC.