Worldwide MMA Preview: Invicta, WSOF, Jungle Fight

While Invicta 18 may not have any title fights on the bill it is still stacked full of talent, it will be live on UFC Fight Pass on Friday night (1am BST) from Kansas City, Missouri.

The main event sees Alexa Grasso returning from injury to take on Jodie Esquibel. Grasso is 7-0 at only 22 years of age but has not fought since February 2015 when she picked up the biggest win of her career by edging out Mizuki Inoue over three rounds. Since then she has had two fights scrapped due to injury but she remains one of the most hyped about prospects at strawweight due to her crisp technical striking game. Esquibel is stepping up to strawweight for the first time in her career after compiling a 5-1 at atomweight. The Jackson-Wink student’s only defeat came to Alex Chambers in 2013 and she has bounced back with two wins since then.

In the co-main event Christine Stanley takes on Agnieszka Niedzwiedz at flyweight. Stanley rose to fame following a brutal spinning kick KO in Xplode Fight Series and has since picked up two wins in Invicta to bring her record to 5-1. Niedzwiedz is another very young fighter at only 21 years old and the Polish fighter already has a 7-0 record. This is her first fight outside of Europe and she has not fought any experienced fighters so far in her career.

There are plenty of other exciting fighters to watch out for on this card including Mizuki Inoue, Cindy Dandois, Jessamyn Duke and Megan Anderson.

On Saturday night (Midnight BST) the action heads to Sao Paulo, Brazil for Jungle Fight 89. The main event is an interim flyweight title fight between Herbeth Sousa and Paulo Oliveira. Sousa has quickly built up a 10-0 record with eight submissions and two KOs and is only 22 years old. Oliveira may have an unimpressive looking 5-4 record but he has won four in a row and has not lost since 2013.

Also on Saturday night (2am BST) is WSOF 32 which features a rematch for the bantamweight championship in the main event. Josh Hill came up short previously in an attempt to dethrone Marlon Moraes but since then he has strung together four wins, including a decision victory over previously unbeaten Bekbulat Magomedov to get another shot. Moraes has been dominating WSOF since its inception with nine wins in a row in the promotion. In his last fight he finished Joe Barajas with leg kicks in the first round. His contract is running up soon and it would be good to see him in the UFC while he is still in his prime.

In the co-main event there is another rematch, champion Alexandre Almeida takes on Lance Palmer at featherweight. Almeida came into the promotion as Jungle Fight champion and choked out Saul Almeida in his first WSOF appearance and then won the title in a decision against Palmer in his second WSOF fight. Team Alpha Male’s Palmer won the WSOF featherweight title in his second attempt when he beat Rick Glenn and he was then successful in his first defence against Chris Horodecki.

Also on the card is a strange fight between two brothers, Ben and Carlos Fodor. Carlos is a veteran of Strikeforce, UFC and One FC while Ben is most well known as a Seattle based “superhero” who goes by the name of Phoenix Jones.