Tanesha Tennant-Olga Rubin to Headline Invicta FC 48 in Denver on July 20

BREAKING: @InvictaFights Heads to Denver on July 20 with Bantamweight Title Clash #InvictaFC48 https://t.co/Q5DlKYTdSQ

— Invicta FC (@InvictaFights) June 9, 2022

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Invicta Fighting Championships will be leaving the Kansas City region for the first time since 2018 this July.

The organization sent out a press release on Thursday announcing its next event, titled Invicta FC 48, which will take place on July 20. Rather than the Memorial Hall or Police Athletic League in Kansas City, Kansas, Invicta will be posting up in Denver at Reelworks Denver. As it will be held in Colorado, open scoring will be in effect. Capping off the fight card will be a bantamweight championship affair between defending champ Taneisha Tennant (4-1) and ex-Bellator MMA fighter Olga Rubin (7-2). The promotion will also be returning to the AXS TV airwaves, rather than airing on YouTube.

Tennant claimed the bantamweight throne in an unorthodox manner. Winning out Phoenix Series 3 at 135 pounds, Tennant claimed decisions over Brittney Victoria Grizzelle, Hope Chase and Taylor Guardado in March 2020 to earn the top contender spot. Instead of fighting for the belt next, she shifted to 145 pounds and faced ex-boxer Danyelle Wolf inside of Dana White's Contender Series. Coming up short, she returned to Invicta and battled Lisa Verzosa for five hard rounds in August 2021 to snag the vacant title. “Triple Threat” will hope to become the first woman to successfully defend her bantamweight strap since Tonya Evinger did so in 2017.

With much of her career coming in the 145-pound range, Rubin worked her way up to a Bellator title shot against Julia Budd in 2019. Succumbing to a first-round knockout, she then attempted to bounce back against Sinead Kavanagh a few months later, only to get knocked out again. Nearly two years passed before she competed again, when she left the Bellator ranks for European pastures to the Oktagon MMA ranks. In November 2021, the woman known as “Big Bad” snagged a split decision over Priscila de Souza to get back on track.

The co-headliner spot also comes in the bantamweight division, when “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 28 and longtime Invicta vet Katharina Lehner (7-3) makes her return to the cage for the first time in over 21 months when she faces four-time Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor Talita Bernardo (7-4). The featured fight comes at 115 pounds when ex-UFC talent Mallory Martin (7-5) comes to blows with well-traveled “Mogwai” Kyra Batara (8-5).

Invicta FC 48 Lineup:

Taneisha Tennant vs. Olga Rubin – bantamweight championship
Katharina Lehner vs. Talita Bernardo – bantamweight
Mallory Martin vs. Kyra Batara – strawweight
Liana Ferreira Pirosin vs. Kristina Williams – flyweight
Amber Leibrock vs. Morgan Frier – featherweight
Auttumn Norton vs. Maria Djukic - bantamweight