Jennifer Maia, Ayaka Hamasaki Defend Titles at Invicta FC 19

After a tough back-and-forth brawl, Brazil’s Jennifer Maia had her hand raised in victory against longtime veteran Roxanne Modafferi in the main event of Invicta FC 19 to capture the promotion’s undisputed flyweight title. In the co-feature, Ayaka Hamasaki retained her atomweight crown via TKO at the Kansas City Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City, Mo.

Maia survived several takedowns and submission attempts from “The Happy Warrior” in the first half of the fight and turned on the heat in the championship rounds. Modafferi never stopped trying to impose her will on her foe, but her stamina depleted over time and she was unable to drag Maia to the canvas when she needed to late.

Maia tagged the Las Vegas resident with several clean, accurate punches in the final frame and when she stuffed a desperate double-leg attempt, she essentially sealed the deal on her win. In the end, two of the three cageside judges favored Maia with scores of 48-47 and 49-46 while the third official had it for Modafferi 48-47.

Hamasaki was rocked in the first from a volley of punches from challenger Jinh Yu Frey but returned the favor in the second when she drilled the American with a nasty right to the face. The punch opened a deep laceration above Frey’s left eye and when her injury was examined by the cageside physician, the title bout was halted. Hamasaki won via TKO at 4:38 of the second, but the Japanese fighter admitted that she didn’t enjoy retaining her belt in such a manner.

Related » Invicta FC 19 Results: Play-by-Play & Updates

UFC Fight Pass subscribers witnessed muay Thai superstar Tiffany Van Soest have a rough time with grappler Kal Holliday as “Time Bomb” was taken down repeatedly. Van Soest defended the myriad of choke attempts thrown at her and dropped Holliday with a right hook late in the first, but in the end, Holliday was too much and eventually forced her tap from a rear-naked choke at 2:08 of the second.

In other action, Mexico’s Irene Aldana dominated New Zealand’s Faith Van Duin and stopped her at 4:57 of the first due to punches; Kaline Medeiros scored a unanimous decision over India’s Manjit Kolekar; Julia Jones escaped a deep armbar to submit Stephanie Skinner with a rear-naked choke at 2:38 of the opening stanza; Amber Leibrock took out Amy Coleman with a series of knees to the body and punches to the head 3:15 into the first; and Iceland’s Sunna Rannvig Davisdottir toppled Ashley Greenway via unanimous decision.